Garden Centre

Saturday, February 23, 2008

More Garden Tasks for February: Clematis

I think pruning is my Achilles heel – and gardeners of the old school certainly thought that pruning separated ‘the men from the boys’ which shows you how long ago they were in charge of gardening, because there weren’t any women around.

Anyway, I’m not the world’s most confident pruner, and I frequently forget what is supposed to be cut back, when, and how. February is the month for pruning clematis – but not all clematis and not all in the same way.

The first group is large-flowered hybrids such as Nelly Moser, Miss Bateman etc. They flower in mid-June on shortish stems from the previous season's growth. They can often bloom again in late summer on new growth, though these flowers are notably smaller. The are the ones that need to be pruned back February or March: you need to entirely remove dead and weak stems, then cut back the remaining stems to the topmost pair of large buds – and as a rule of thumb, you should find you’re removing a stem length of anything from 6 inches to 18 inches. Plants in this group have the tendency to become leafless at the base as they mature and if you wish, you can try to force a flush of new growth from the base by cutting the plant back to 18 inches to two feet as soon as the June flowering is over.

Then there are late-flowering clematis – these are climbers that flower on the final two to two and a half feet of this year’s growth in mid-June and carry on in bloom until early autumn. Supposedly these are the easiest clematis to prune since no old wood needs to be kept, so at this time of year you can just cut each stem to a height of about 24-36 inches from the ground, which will of course make you wince as you will be cutting away strong stems and nice fat buds, but it’s necessary to get the right level of flowering. Plants in this group are Clematis viticella, Clematis jackmanii, 'Duchess of Albany' and others.

Labels: pruning clematis, winter pruning

The All Seasons Gardener at 7:54 AM

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