Hello all!

I was hoping someone could help a newbie out with her Clematis, I recently purchased a house in Minneapolis and inherited some Clematis plants, and I think I killed them.

We got the house in May. I noticed that there were these "dead" vines all over a trellis in the back. So I started tearing it off, until I noticed the "dead" vines were green in the middle - they werenÂt dead at all! I didn't know what to do, so I left it half on and half off the trellis. It did bloom, and left a lovely cascade of vines and flowers all over my lawn, with a ton of now actually dead vines underneath. Because everything underneath was dead and many of the vines were now growing out away from the trellis and just winding itÂs way around the dead vines, I thought I should clean it up. To make what is a very long story short, letÂs just leave it at the fact that IÂm an idiot and tried to prune the plant without researching it. First, I just pruned it last month, I wasnÂt aware you should wait until spring. Second, I think I cut it back way too far, it was such a mess and at that point the stems were growing outward away from the trellis so I thought I had to.

IÂve enclosed some pictures for identification purposes (I really tried to identify on my own, and I just canÂt do it) and to show what I did. You can see the dead leaves intertwined with the live ones and the one shrub/bush/thing that I trimmed all the way down on the side IÂm hoping I didnÂt kill it completely, when it was growing on the ground it had tons of beautiful flowers so I think it was a pretty well-established plant. All of the flowers are now dead on the plant with the pink flowers. I realize that I might not have it bloom for a few years, but should I even try at this point? Or is there too much damage? Any advice at where to go from here?

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