I have a 5-year old Evergreen Clematis in Portland, OR. It was so huge that I decided to cut everything off the vine itself... effectively leaving no foliage.

I do have many, many feet of intertwined woody vine.... probably 25 to 30 feet if I stretched it out. I thought that buds would form all over the woody part and have new growth. So far, the only growth I have is way at the end and its MINIMAL. There are buds, but they're just brown and look dead.

In retrospect, I probably should have cut back to the base (trunk). If I did that now (May 6th), would it be too late? I don't care about blooms. I just want leaves back this summer.

Thanks for your help.