Very old gnarled clematis

catewithers

I have a very old clematis in my garden that is climbing up a fence and down the fence and everywhere else! There was a lot of dead wood on it so I've chopped as much back as I can - a lot of it is over the fence in my neighbour's garden and she won't let me go round and sort it out on her side. It's flowering at the moment and seems quite happy but is a bit spindly.

It's obviously been chopped right back to the ground at some point as there's a very thick stump and the current growth is coming out of old shoots that have sprouted from the side of that stump.

My question is - hang on, I'm getting there! :rolleyes: - would it be ok to chop it right back down to the ground once it's finished flowering? Will it sprout again and recover?! I love clematis and I don't want to kill it off but it isn't much good at the moment.

What do you think?!

BlondeHeadOn

If it's flowering at the moment then it is almost certainly one of the ones that flower on wood grown the previous year (from the sounds of it probably a montana, as they spread a lot and can get very woody). So if you are going to cut it down, do so as soon as it has finished flowering. This will give it chance to put some growth on during the rest of the year, so it will flower next Spring.

I wouldn't worry about killing it, if it is a montana then they are very hard to kill!

BlondeHeadOn

Forgot to say: the other option is just to tidy it back as much as possible, but not actually cut it all down to the roots - that way you get a much neater plant, but it's not quite so scary as chopping it off at the ankles!

Hope this helps.

:cool:

catewithers

Thanks so much. Sounds like a good plan. I don't mind chopping it right down as long as it won't kill it and it'll sprout again! And it would give us the cahnce to do some much needed repairs to the fence it's climbing on too.

No idea what kind it is - it's got pale pink flowers and quite dark leaves - does that sound like a Montana?

BlondeHeadOn

Some piccies here which might help you identify it, there are quite a lot of varieties,:

http://www.clematismontana.co.uk/gallery_flowers-buds01.html

Should be able to identify it from one of these if it is a montana!

Or it could be a macropetala I guess, which look more like these:

http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/plantfinder/clematis_6.asp

They tend to have more greeny leaves and 'shaggier' flowers though.

Hope this helps!

BlondeHeadOn

Just found this as well on the RHS website, which answers your pruning question nicely:

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0403/pruning_clematis_montana.asp

:j

catewithers

Thanks so much - that's really helpful!