How close to the grown should clematis be cut back and when is the best time to do so?
cutting back clematis
Hi LadyBugRed. This is what I do, and my clematis is very happy. At the end of October I'll: (1) dig about 6" down around the base of the plant, then (2) cut and hack my clematis off of its trellis; (3) pile the twisted/twirled up foliage in the hole and on top, and then (4) cover it with earth and then wooden mulch. I don't cut it down to the ground, and all the foliage acts as fresh mulch yearly, to achieve the "cold feet" it thrives on. This is what it looked like this year. I planted them two years ago thinking they could grow on separate trellises...lol.
Wow, Ceedub, That's so interesting! You have a beautiful display!
Lady, this link might help you out: http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/clematis/questoc.htm
The whole site is stuffed with great info.
Jen
Clematis actually fall into three pruning groups and each is handled differently, according to how they bloom.
ceedub's are Group 3 [love the way they grow together by the way ceedub - very pretty!] which means they only bloom on new wood. That type is cut back to the ground either late fall or very early spring. If you cut the other two types back that much though, you will never get any flowers at all because they only bloom on old wood - either wood from previous years or the early season wood for the fall bloomers.
If you still have the tag, it may tell you which group it is, or at the very least have the name so you can look it up online [just Google clematis and you will find sites that list the different varieties]. Failing that you can tell by how it grows. If you have not cut it back previously and it only has had blooms at the ends of the vines, it is a type 3 and needs to be cut back to about 12 inches. Types 1 & 2 are a little trickier to identify but in general, type 1 blooms early and type 2 blooms midseason. Group 3 has the longest bloom time of the three. A Google search will also give you info on pruning techniques for the 3 types.
If you have a very young plant, it never hurts to prune them hard for a couple years - helps it to establish better roots, though you will sacrifice flowers for a couple years in types 1 & 2.
Thanks JenG and dlyn. That's great info. My method came from a GF who always treats hers that way-I guess we have the same type of clematis, fortunately! I can't locate the tags they came with, but plan to do a major re-organization of the boxes that came ouf of my den-we had to make it into a 3rd bedroom in the spring. I know I'll find them eventually...sigh. Thanks again.
what about Mandavelia, can you cut it down the same way and hope for it to come back next year
I think Mandevilla is tender and will die if you leave it in the ground so far north. They sometimes die here in NW Fl if it's a cold winter. You can treat it as an annual and get a replacement in the spring.
http://davesgarden.com/pdb/go/1711/index.html
Thanks all for the info....I will look into which group my clematis fall in, they look just like the picture of ceedub's above, I can tell you that last fall my father cut them back to about 3 feet and this spring as they began to put out new shoots my husband took a weedeater to two of them accidently and they grew thicker and better than the other two. I have four of them on all 4 sides of my trelis. I know they could use a stronger base, they are a little thin at the base. They obviously flower from new wood, I found this out after the weedeater incident, so would they be group 3?
Sounds like it LadyBR, they're such hardy little devils. Someone pointed me to a site that might interst you to idenify your clematis - http://www.clematis.hull.ac.uk/clemalphasearch.cfm - its exhaustively complete, with most having pictures. Good luck.