Tuesday 13 February 2007

Pruning Clematis



I have been pruning my six Clematis plants. I prune them early in February, cutting just above a low healthy bud (as low as 12 inches if possible, although about 20 inches as plant matures) and these pictures are the result one gets in the summer. Do n ote that I am talking about summer flowering clematis and not the small flowered spring flowering varieties. We visited Great Dixter a couple of years ago, home of the late Christopher Lloyd, one of our great 20th century horticulturists. The nursery there (and it is a nursery and not a garden centre) houses one of the country's most extensive collection of Clematis. As I chatted to Christopher (even at the age of 90 he loved to walk around his nursery and gardens and chat to visitors) he advised me to mulch clematis with a bucket of organic manure immediately after pruning. I have found this very beneficial.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is such a beautiful blog. I'm so glad you started one. I will be coming here on a regular basis as I will have some gardening questions of my own to be answered in the coming months.

Cherry xx

Lorrie said...

What a lovely start to a blog. I need to prune my clematis soon and was surprised to see how much to cut back.

Lorrie, from western Canada