Hello everyone! I know I can count on you folks to provide some quick help! I've done a little research on pruning types (now if I can just retain it all...) and am thinking that perhaps my combination of clematis on a trellis is not all wrong after all in terms of pruning, but I do want to make sure.

I planted two texensis, Princess Diana and Duchess of Albany (Bluestone sale acquisitions), and a sweet autumn clematis (transplanted weed, really, since those things are rampant around here) early in the spring, along with two gloriosa lilies -- okay, so i got a bit carried away.... I then planted a Claire de Lune that had been in a pot for way too long--5 years perhaps--and which had suffered a bit from its move from No. VA to Eastern NC--after its first late spring flush of blooms in late July, when it was averaging in the 90s and rain was a distant memory (okay, I wasn't really thinking). The show this summer/fall was okay and even the Claire threw out a few late season blooms (even given that I had to prune it dramatically and womanhandle the root ball a bit because it was HUGE, having grown all those years in a 14" diam. pot) but I'm hoping, praying, that the "average" show was a first year thing and that this coming year I'll have quite a party on that trellis. But, now I'm worried about pruning.

Can I just hack the whole thing down to a few inches above the ground in the late winter/early spring or will I be doing violence to any of the individual clematis -- most particularly the Claire?

Thanks for all your great input!

Yasmin