Hey guys. First time clematis owner here...The main stem of this Negritianka is growing straight up, only the leaves of one branch are starting to curl around the trellis. I have posted a picture, my question is, do I need to be encouraging this clematis to wind around the lower parts of the trellis before shooting straight up? My concern is that it will just grow straight up and then run out of vertical trellis space, then not want to grow "down" again to fill in the left and right portions.
I hear about people "training" their vines and I'm not quite sure what that means. Thanks, guys!
Do I need to train this clematis??
Here's another shot closer up.
Negritianka is a lovely vigorous Clematis in Group 3 (hard prune) that should be trained on your trellis to keep it controlled and growing vertically. As your Clematis vines grow longer, you can start encouraging the lower ones to attach themselves to the climbing structure. Pruning each year in early Spring will make your Clematis bushy, instead of tall & leggy. Hope this helps!
Hi Shirley! Thanks so much for your response. I'm wondering, though, if I need to make the main, central vine curl around the trellis and try to fill up the right or left side of the trellis. Right now it is shooting straight up, so my concern is that it will just grow straight up, not curl around the trellis, then it will want to grow straight up off of the trellis instead of filling it up. Does this make sense?