If the plants were mine, I would cut them back to within 6 inches or so of the ground. I have never found that cutting back closer hinders anything as far as clematis are concerned. I also plant all clematis 2 inches or so deeper in the ground than they were in their original containers. This helps to insure you have dormant buds below ground level in case the plant is cut to the ground by a person or any type of animal.

If the plant is putting out foliage higher up on the vines, then it is very much still alive and will throw up more vines from the base even if the lower buds never become active.

I agree

I gather you both feel that even though the buds look inactive/dry?/ not swelling at all yet, that this is normal and they will swell with the warm weather?
Ginny

Those particular buds may or may not swell and grow but the plant will sprout up from the roots and likely from the stems left as well.

The object is to cut back hard to encourage more vines, leaving them long encourages long spindly growth with few flowers.

Hard pruning is your friend when it comes to Clematis.

I agree with BorS. The existing buds may not come out, but pruning back might encourage axial buds behind them to become active. If not, then pruning should cause more stems to come from the crown. If you do nothing, then you risk having 4 ot 5 feet of brown stems with no growth below that.

I pruned almost all of my Clems today. Most got the 6" from the ground chop.

A couple of older Type II's that were chopped last year I left mostly alone because I really want some growth on them for screening.

Would anyone be willing to explain the Type II pruning technique? I thought I only had III's until I learned Rhapsody was a II.

Its is entering its third season and reached about 3' tall last summer.

Pruning type 2's is very easy Harry..you DON'T prune them till AFTER they have bloomed AND ONLY to shape to fit the desired look in your garden or to keep in bounds and to remove any dead vines...remember to fertilize after the first bloom period is over as they will bloom again late summer/early fall....Jeanne
ps..some people treat certain varieties of their pruning group 2's as a 3 because they do best for them...I stopped hardpruning my "Rhapsody" after year 2 and it is doing beautifully being treated as a 2 for me in my zone..it actually shot up 4 new vines this year for me..veryyyyy exciting..LOL...Jeanne

Actually, you can prune type II's in the spring before they bloom. Cut them above a healthy bud 1-2 feet from the top. You can also not prune them at all, or prune them like type III's. I've done it all these ways and the clematis don't seem to mind.

Carol

Unless you are growing clematis in zones where you have a short growing season or unless you are growing clematis that will only produce double flowers on old wood, then you can treat most of the type IIs as IIIs. If you do this, your type IIs will bloom later in the year than they would have otherwise. Sometimes I treat my type IIs as IIs and sometimes I treat them as IIIs depending on how I am feeling at the time I do the trimming. If you have a gnarly mess of vines on your type IIs, which would make removal of deadwood a real pain, then whack them back to within a couple of inches of the ground. If you have the patience to trim only the dead wood out, then treat them as type IIs. This year all of my type IIs were treated as IIIs since trying to trim only the deadwood out would be a nightmare. Sunset, HF Young, The President, and Niobe are type IIs that have always been treated as type IIIs in my garden.

Since my plant is barely established, I'm thinking of treating it as a III this year. I don't think there is that much old wood to remove and thus, not too many early blooms to lose.

Thanks to everyone for the help.