Walled Garden Nursery
Clematis,climbing plants and perennials specialist
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Prune group 1
This group is usually assocoiated with the
evergreen and early spring flowering Clematis.
It consists of merely removing weak and dead
shoots at the end of winter to keep the plant
tidy. If any control of growth is needed, this
must be done immediately after flowering so
that the new shoots have plenty of time to
ripen during the summer as these plants
flower on old wood from the previous year.
Prune group 2
This group consists of the large flowered
hybrids which flower first on old wood and
then usually on new wood later in the
summer. Again weak and dead shoots should
be cut out in late winter - end of February or
early March - and the remaining healthy stems
need to be pruned back to where there are fat
buds ready to burst into growth. These stems
from the last year will produce the first crop of
flowers, and most varieties will also give a
second crop on new growth later in the
season. It is possible to give a pruning
immediately after the first flowers to keep the
plant tidy and encourage new growth for
summer flowers.
Prune group 3
This is the “hard prune” section that worries
some people, but it is really the easiest of all.
This group consists of plants which flower on
the current season’s growth from midsummer
onwards. They can be cut back almost to
ground level or to the lowest buds in early
spring. Also included are herbaceous clematis
which die back and so grow fresh from the
ground each year.
Many people seem to think that there is some great
mystery surrounding the pruning of clematis. We often
have requests at the Nursery for “non-prune clematis”, from
people who think that these are easier to take care of.
Those who only grow “non-prune” varieties are missing out
on many gems of the clematis world. It is also true that
plants which require hard pruning are often much easier to
look after in the long term, as each year they present us
with fresh growth from top to bottom. We hope that the
information on this page will encourage you to try plants
from the three pruning groups.
Clematis pruning page