Clematis: Pruning Question...., 1 by JeanneTX

JeanneTX wrote:
http://www.britishclematis.org.uk/qa_growing.htm
"Prune down to the lowest pair of growth buds in early Spring..then you pinch out the tops of each new shoot after it has grown 2 pair of leaves..Pinch out again once these new leave have also made two pair of leaves. If Growth also starts again from soil level, this too can be pinched out at the same two pair of leaves..just continues to repeat this process as often as you wish until mid-May, by which this time your plant will already have many branching stems instead of just one or two.Pinching out will obviously delay the start of flowering, but now you have blooms on much lower on the plant and no bare expanse of stems and also this can give you much better insurance against losing your new plant to wilt.Clematis wilt may still attack but now, because it is shorter and bushier the wilt may only affect a small portion of the plant"
..Clematis "H.F.Young" is one of the few clematis thatbuild up a bushy plant without pinching..this I can attest with my "H.F.Young"

This message was edited Apr 13, 2010 6:46 AM