Pruning Clematis does not stunt them. In fact it invigorates them.

Some Clematis only bloom on new wood so pruning them down every year is how you get the most flowers.

Some bloom on old wood and don't have to be pruned but pruning will stimulate any of them to grow more vines and more flowers.

Do you know the names?

See if you can figure out their names. When they bloom check out the flowers on the net or post a pic & someone should be able to tell you the name of your clematis. Pruning is done by the group they fall in. There are 3 groups of pruning for clematis but this is based on their varity & name. Do NOT cut into the hard stick stems near the bottom you can kill the plant. If you must cut before you know the names of your clematis cut only down as far as 18" from the ground & above a set of buds. Or at least make sure there are leaves below your prunning cut. Pruning or cutting back is best left for early spring.

I have this huge plant growing on three bare wood stems. I won't prune now, and will wait til spring. Are you saying that I shouldn't cut these stems shorter? I was hoping that I could get some growth close to the ground. The flowers are large and purple. If you can give me some names, I'll recognize it. Thanks

I think I remember it being called "Becky". Could that be so? It just seems as though this huge plant is way too heavy for these three slim wooden stems.

If you planted the plant originally so that it was planted deeper in the ground than it was in its original pot, then you should not hurt your clematis by cutting it back past these older woody parts. Planting them deeper this way buries dormant nodes that will be called into play when the plant is cut back severely. To top it off, if you don't like the look of the plant the way it looks now with nothing but woody sticks at the bottom, you don't really have much choice. If it were mine and had been allowed to get to this state, I would hack them back severely to try and get more growth from the bottom.

Don't know where mamoo got her info, but clematis plants can be pruned back hard during the growing season. As BorS said, it stimulates the plant to put out new growth. I do it to my type IIs every summer and they respond by putting out new growth and new flushes of bloom. Since you are in MA, I would wait to cut it back in the spring since your growing season is not as long as ours in the south is. You never know how early you all might get your first frosts and you don't want the plant to be putting out loads of new growth at this time of the year.

I know of no clematis that is purple and has Becky as part of its name.

I would cut into the hard sticks at the bottom. I have done it to mine with no problems. Certainly no death. I used to be afraid but not any longer. I'm sick to death of looking at bare woody vines with a few flowers way up at the top.

Hello, I by no means am an expert on clematis but have benefited from nckvilledudes and buyorsell's advice on numerous occasions. I had planted 2 new type II clematis in June and saw that they were browning out from the heat. I did not cut them back before I planted them like I should have. I decided to cut them back severely and all now have a flush of new growth. There are new sprouts appearing at the cracks that I made on old woody stems as well as at the junctions of the old leaves. I recently purchase 2 more and have cut them back prior to planting and have planted them deeply. Listen to these experienced clematis growers, you will reap the reward of their experiences. I have.

Tracy

BorS, glad you chimed in here. My SAC has huge brown stalks by the end of every year and I routinely hack into them with no issues.

Tracy, way to take the leap of faith and jump in there and cut them back! We now have yet another person who can chime in on these sorts of matters!

Yes sir, I am a firm believer. I even have the pictures to prove it now. I thought that since this is such a recurring question that I might post them for the non-believers. Please excuse all of the leaves and acorns, the squirrels have been having a grand old time shaking them off the branches of our neighbors oak trees. I kept getting pelted as I was taking the pictures today. That is my next project, evicting little acorns from my flower bed!

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The two shorter ones are type II's and the taller one is a type III. All have responded very well to the pruning and I couldn't be happier. Not to mention the roots will be happier for it as well.

Pictures are worth a million words Tracy. That is why I try and post the pictures that I do. Welcome to the circle of believers of the virtue of hard pruning back of clematis!!!

Thank you. I figured maybe some folks needed to see the proof. LOL. I have always appreciated your pictures. I have found all of your posts to be extremely helpful. I was just reading another one of yours that you had linked to a propagation site that gave a very nice example of layering. Thank you once again for more helpful info!

Sandbob: All of these were experiencing browning out of the leaves and long woody legs. Since I cut them back I have received nice healthy new growth. All of the bright green is new. If you look closely at the smudged photo you can see some new buds forming on the base of the stems. Sorry for the smudges, one of the kids put their sticky fingers on the lens before I had noticed and cleaned it up. God bless the little ones and their fast hands :O)

Too funny Tracy. Like they say, the proof is in the pudding (in the case of your little ones and their sticky fingers!). LOL or perhaps the proof is in the pictures.

Here is my most recent rebloomer--Princess Diana. She along with Gravetye Beauty and Etoile were covered in mildew and browned out leaves earlier in the season so I hacked them all back. All three are back but only Princess Dianna has graced me with more flowers. I would have cut back more of my clematis this summer but I am trying to get seeds from all the ones trying to produce them. Needless to say, this summer I have had more browned out ones than I normally would have due to my not cutting back and the gardening conditions we have experienced in NC!

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Yes, the proof certainly is in the pudding, as evidenced above! LOL! This little girl of mine can't keep her hands off of my toys! I am relatively certain that she has enough of her own toys to keep her busy.

I can't believe that you still have not received any rain down there! Even we (in northern ohio) are seeing fall out rain from the hurricanes that are running through the gulf! We went from serious drought conditions to swamp land in the space of 1 week in August. My plants don't know what to think. I have lost 2 polomeum to the strange weather. The astilbe went into shock, had to be cut back and managed to recover.

My proteus is looking pitiful from me allowing it to go to seed. I have just started collecting a few heads in the last few days, I should have an abundance of them. I have also collected a few from Angelique as well. We will see how patient a person I am when I start trying to grow them. LOL!

I am impressed with the delicate blooms and brilliant color of the Princess Dianna! None of mine are showing any new blooms yet but I believe it is too soon anyhow. No worries. I can wait for next year. I am excited to see the Multi Blue in bloom. I am hoping for a nice show. I planted it in partial sun hoping that it will be a nice deep blue and not a faded blue/lavender. We will see.

I took a bunch of pictures but never uploaded them to Photobucket. I'll have to get on that.....

Believe it Tracy. The whole state except for a couple of places along the coast have had little rain and are in serious deficit conditions. Wilmington on the southern coast is still almost 19 inches short this year even after the recent tropical depression dumped 8 inches on some places. My area is about 10 inches down for the year and the higher than normal temperatures haven't helped matters.

We are having an unexpected shower. The weather channel is saying it is partly cloudy out with chance of rain in the evening. Hmmm, I wonder if someone should call them and tell them to look outside?

I am beating it down south to you. Let me know when it arrives! I still have 5 gallon buckets put out to collect rain water just in case. I think it is safe to put them away now. My hubby offered to place our downspouts in rain barrels for me next summer in the event that we go through these severe dry spells again. I will be taking him up on it! A friend of mine recommends using "dunks" to prevent mosquitos from using the still waters. I will be picking those up too for next season.

I'll be waiting Tracy! LOL

Well, as I said earlier, I am not the best of gardeners, and decided to plant perenials about 3 years ago,and have been running with it ever since although I am very inexperienced. I also have a honeysuckle growing on the same fence with the climatis, and was concerned that it was taking over the climatis and would kill it. I went out today to get a good look, and lo and behold, it is the climatis that has taken over the honeysuckle. What I thought was the honeysuckle just getting bigger and bigger is actually the climatis. It is huge, and I also found the tag in the ground. It is a paniculata, full of blooms and just gorgeous. I had it mixed up with one on the other fence which produces the pretty purple flowers. This is so big that I am afraid to prune it. I am just going to leave it the way it is now, and try to prune it back in the early spring. Any suggestions. See, I told you I was a novice...couldn't tell one from the other lol.

Very funny Sandbob! Love it! lol! Go ahead and prune now as much or little as you like. If you feel like just pruning one of those long legs and waiting on the rest till next year that is fine too. No hard and fast rules on the way you prune. You can always just cut a few notches into them instead if you like. You will see some new green budding out of the slices in the woody stems. Good luck, have fun.

Nckvilledudes, it stopped raining here and should be coming to you next! LOL!

How do I cut a few notches into the stems? Now that I realize it's the clematis growing so good, I don't want to make any mistakes with it.

Just take a sharp knife and lightly knick the wood to expose the green within or sometimes I just bend a woody stalk till it cracks for the same result. I normally do one per stalk that needs some new growth, two or more if it is really leggy. You should notice some activity within a week or so.

I've been playing with them all summer and having some fun at it. Don't worry overly much about making a mistake. Start small, watch the results and do more if you like. Before you know it you'll be trimming this one ugly piece off, cracking that other one to get a new shoot to fill in that area over there, etc, etc, etc.

I must admit that I have never heard of cracking a woody stalk or nicking it with a knife to encourage new growth. Cutting them back, yes, but knicking them or cracking the stem no. Does anyone else do this?? I've had stems break but they generally die and I haven't seen new growth emerge from a broken stem.....I'm confused.

Carol

Carol, I found that the clematis that I had been training and accidentally cracked a woody stem would develop new growth. Therefore I started to create a few strategic breaks to get some new growth in more bare areas. It was just a happy accident that I noticed and have had some good results with. They were not broken entirely, just cracked.

Sorry Tracy but not a drop and they claimed a 50% chance of rain. Oh well, the weather guessers miss again. What a surprise!

Carol, I have never heard of it either. Personally I would just wait until next spring or late winter and whack them off low and stand back. Like I said earlier, my SAC has serious thick trunks by the end of the season and they are always bare. My whacking has never made it skip a beat.

So sorry that you didn't get the rain. Like I said earlier on the knicks in the woody stems, that is just me having played around and experienced a nice surprise from a cracked stem while training. Tried it strategically and had happy results. No big deal. If you look at the blurry picture you can see some of the buds forming at the base of the right leg from where I cracked that one on purpose. In one of the propagation references the layering method actually instructs you to cut a notch into the stem below the leaf node before burying it in compost and soil next to the mother plant. Now I have not tried this yet but will be attempting that this fall.

Tracyvine - I'm glad to know that accidents can have good results. I cracked the woody stem of the 'Comtesse de Bochaud' I just planted. I buried the cracked part without trimming the plant back to that point. (The crack was about 3" from the roots). Hopefully it will just sprout more from that point.

Entling, thank you. The propagation site I had read mentioned that fall is the perfect time to attempt this and that you will develop new roots from the buried broken section by spring time. In spring you can dig it up to see if the roots have established and then disconnect from the parent plant and plant elsewhere if you like.

Great site for pruning the differnet clematis.
www.chalkhillclematis.com
The pictures are great if you don't know what yours is. There are 3 different groups and they explain each group as to the pruning needed. Good luck.

However, you can prune any Clematis as a type III to rejuvenate. You should also prune all of them as type IIIs the first few years to get them off to a good start.

Pruning groups are guidelines. Not written in stone.

I took "No Prune" to heart when I planted my first Clems over seven years ago and it was a disaster. It has taken two years of hard pruning to get them closer to where they would have been if I started them off correctly.

Hi, I seem to have an image problem. Does anyone know why I can't see Tracyvine's pictures (or even any indication of where they should be), but have no difficulty viewing Nckvilledudes'? I have this experience on the forum all the time, but now I really want to see what Tracyvine is up to, so I need to start problem-solving! -- Pat

I have an old Georgian house surrounded by cottage gardens which gets a lot of dappled light. Mature oaks and maples shade the property. I tried to grow climbing roses and those continually got black spot so three years ago I pulled them out and replaced with Clematis. WOW - what a wonderous vine this is! I have 6 or 7 varieties now since they do well in my yard. I too planted in with honeysuckle and they seem content together. I believe the purple one mentioned is Jackami. It has large deep royal purple flowers the size of a hand. Cut it down in the fall about 18" from the ground. It will get very lush by July and you'll be rewarded with many blooms. Another fine vine is Sweet Autumn - this blooms a mass of starry shaped white flowers in profusion - it's blooming now. Very big plant so have a large trellis or fence. It has a wonderful scent...even my dogs walk by and sniff the flowers!