Clematis "Jackmanii" is a pruning group 3...now that is the ONE that you should be treating as you do the others...All the rest are Pruning group 2's and shouldn't be pruned except to keep in bounds or shape..you should fertilize with Rose or Tomato fertilizer after each bloom cycle..not during a bloom period..Type 2s bloom on old wood or in other words "the vines grown from the previous season" and they have two heavy bloom cycles ..once in Spring and then later on in Summer or Fall..I think if you let your Pruning group 2s grow and not prune and fertilize properly they will perform better for you ..especially since they are older now...Jeanne

Jeanne, Thanks for your reply. I will try your suggestions next spring.

I don't mean to argue with a signpost and take the wrong way home, but I still find it puzzling.

Take Nellie Moser, for example. I planted it in 2001, so it's now 5+ years in the ground. Until this year, I pruned it by the book -- cut it back to about 12-15" in late winter. It sends up vines and blooms in late April into May. The first 4 years, I did not cut it back after it bloomed in May. I did deadhead the spent flowers and fertilize again. The vines grew to 6-8' and didn't grow much more through the summer. In fall there were a handful of blooms, but not a big show.

Ditto for H.F. Young. He blooms repeatedly when I cut him back, but with only a spring pruning, there's no repeat bloom and just a few in the fall.

I would ask other gardeners in my local area about their experiences, but clematis aren't widely grown around here and I seldom see any that look good.

Nellie and H.F. Young are both type two. Do not cut them back in the fall. They bloom early spring on old wood. After they finish their early bloom cut them back and you will get a good rebloom.

I don't consider myself an expert by any means, but it seems to me that if you are getting 3 or 4 bloom cycles on your clematis by cutting them back repeatedly, you're doing something right. I have never had that kind of repeat bloom on any of my clematis and I'm inclined to give your approach a try on a few of mine next year. Because of my shorter growing season, I don't think I'll get anything like 4 cycles out of them, but I'd like to try it your way and see what happens. Maybe you're on to something new and better here.

It depends on climate. Jeanne gets more bloom cycles than I do because of the weather differences. I have a long growing season, but with only a few days over 90 degrees and the nights are cool. I get two bloom cycles. When I first started cutting my type twos back it was to get rid of unattractive growth and the added bloom cycle was an unexpected bonus. I don't think you can damage your clematis by giving it a try.

Dixie...there are some clematis that are pruning type 2's that do better in warmer zones being treated like a 3!!..If that works for you then I would say "Keep doing what works for you"!..For instance, I was treating my "Ernest Markham" like a pruning group 3 and saw this lady from Oklahoma that is treating it like a 2 and it's magnificient..so I shall leave mine alone and see what happens...Clematis "H.F.Young" performs better for me as a pruning group 3 too!!..The only thing that happens when pruning a 2 like a 3 is that it will bloom a couple weeks later than usual and if it's one that has double...we won't get the double blooms only the single since they bloom doubles on old wood..
You can never hurt a clematis by pruning...so continue doing what you are doing if they are performing better for you!!...I also think Fertilizing with the right fertilizer at the right time makes all the difference...Jeanne

Climate definitely affects growing conditions. There are times I think most gardening books are written by people living in Connecticut. Here in coastal South Carolina, daytime temperatures are 85 or higher from mid-April through the end of October. Summer nights are in the 70s.

Not many people grow clematis in this area, so there's not much local folk wisdom to draw upon.

I agree, Bob, that cutting the Type IIs back in the fall would be risky, in part because they'd probably send up tender new growth only to be hit by frost.