I have always pruned my type 3's down to the first or second node in the spring. I always let them grow after that. I am thinking if I prune back some of the new growth that my plants will bush out more. At what point do I prune back the new growth and how many times do I need to continue ti do this with the new growth? I realize this will delay flowering, but I am not so concerned with that.
Pruning Question....
I wouldn't prune the new vines emerging from the soil from your older clematis..that sign is letting you know that your clematis root system feels it's getting big enough to have more vines..You can hard prune 2's if they are leggy or just a few vines for it to force more vines from the soil..am I understanding you correctly?...Jeanne
I think she means she wants to pinch the new growth tips, so the vine is fuller.
aww..then yes pinch away...thanks Julia for explaining..
that is what I mean, but at what point do I pinch back the new growth? I have some vines that have 6" inches of new growth. I would like to pinch them but am wondering if I should wait until there are a couple of new nodes before pinching...
Yes..let the clematis grow about 3-4 new "Y's" or nodes and pinch above it..then your new vine will send out vines from the "Y"
Thank you so much!
Jeanne, remember Miguel's photo demonstration on pinching new growth on clems?
Do you think you can find that at GW and bring it to the front? There really is no better tutorial on pinching back any plant that I have ever seen.
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
My "Jeanne's notes on clematis" has grown again. Soon it will be book worthy.
Great information on this thread.
Jeanne -
Thank you so much - this is what I was looking for. I started last night with the clems that were showing enough growth to do this. I am going to add this to my tagged folders.
Carolyn
Carolyn..you are so welcomed...My sweet Miguel taught me this many years ago...things like this I use to automatically do with my clematis but now I always think of his teaching me whilst even performing the simplest of things...hugzzzzz...Jeanne