Clematis planning

Hi all - newish member here, so point me towards any already existing discussions if my question's rubbish!

I'm planning buying a Clematis Alpina and a Cirrhosa to help decorate a fence and a wall. There are tensioned wires along these, and likely there'll be other climbers to help the Clematis grasp their way up. I'm looking at how to avoid too much bare wood at the bottom of the Clematis(es) as the plants mature.

The advice (they're both Group 1) seems to be to prune back to strong buds to encourage a good solid base of 4/5 strong leader shoots.

RHS etc say this is to be done “the first spring after planting”. 2 questions:

1) These are both winter/spring-flowering plants. Whilst the answer’s perhaps more obvious for the Cirrhosa which should have finished flowering in Feb, is the pruning to be done after flowering? Presumably so, but as the Alpina will still be flowering into April/May, do a) I hack off the flowers if they’re still there in May, or b) miss Spring and do it in early Summer Assume it’s the latter – leave the flowers on until they fade, then perform the chop?

2) If I plant them in March, is “the first spring after planting” this year or next year? Or Mar/Apr 27 for the Cirrhosa & 26 for the Alpina? My instinct is to let the plants loose for a year to get some sun through the leaves and goodness into the roots (hence 2027 for both species) but it’d alternatively be nice to start getting some training done this year so I know where I'm heading.

Thanks!



Rob

 

I have only recently had clematis survive my lack of gardening skills. The only tip I have that seems to have made the difference for me is that I learned they don't like hot feet so I pile up lots of wood chips around their bases.

 

You are going to struggle its just the nature of climbing plants to be bare at the base while their heads are in the sun . Try and keep them more on a more diagonal angle 45 degrees to try and stimulate buds lower down, this will slow down the plant growing up , its not something I've done with clematis to be honest I just let do as they wish roses and other more woody climbers yes more regimented training .

It depend on how good the plants you received whether I'd cut them back which I'd do after planting in spring , its gives the rest of the year to grow back older woody flowering stems for next year . Group 1 pruning are more of trim / tidy up to strong buds its just the top buds really - Group 2 Trim / tidy up most years but can be cut back hard every few years ( like Group3 ) to get a grip of them my piilu get in a right tangled mess after awhile - Group 3 hard cut back late winter to about foot .

If you haven't grown clematis before I really would go with group3 clematis far easier to look after flower for months and pack a punch when they do flower brilliant plants.