Pruning clematis

Wonder if someone could give some advice please. A friend of mine gave me 2 Clematis as she was moving house. I have no idea which varieties they are altho I do know they are not the rampant Montana varieties or species types. I remember them flowering about maybe June and possibly again a bit later. Apart from 1 being white and 1 pale purple that is all I know about them. Would I be best to prune both down to about 2 ft off the ground to a pair of decent buds or just leave them for this year and see what happens. Both currently have about 5ft of top growth. I have already planted them good and deep to encourage new growth from the bottom. If I do leave them to get on with it is there any way I can tell how they should be pruned in the future. Thanks.

 

Hello my friend I normally prune my clematis the back endof the year after flowering is past .

I prune hard back to base and they normally grow back very well.

You can take the dead growth of now .

The 2 on my arch I did notg manage to prune them at back end of year due to weather.

I will prune these in begining of March.

See what others think here Sue.

 

Hello Silu
with new Clematis it is recommended to prune back to 1 - 2 ft just above a healthy set of buds , in the first year . I do this in the last half of February and give them a good blood and bone feed. Your deep planting is correct to establish good growth . Now when they do start to grow to determine the type could be fun as there are over 3500 varieties of Clematis This site link below has a search facility for types of clematis so may be useful when they flower. If not if you post a picture on here I am sure someone will identify them.

http://www.clematis.com.pl/wms/wmsg.php/

 

Hi Silu. I purchased and Planted Another 2 Clematis last year. the name of the Clematis I planted is"Arctic Queen
It is A compact Clematis with Spectacular flowers. As this Clematis Only grows to 6ft in Height x 2 ft spread it
is Ideal for Containers. The Arctic Queen Flower is Pure White and is a full headed flower,not like some Clematis which tend to be big flowers with no heart. Regarding Pruning ,as i say i only planted last year and they grew to their 6 ft . I pruned them this week. I cut them back about 6 inch above the new Growth ,that would be about 3 feet pruning. as said above earlier there are thousands of Clematis .as stated on this Forum by Someone ,you can virtually grow A Grade of Clematis All Year . I also have 6 other Clematis which have to be treated differently from the Arctic Queen. I dont know what grade of Clematis you have, just have a good inspection of the Clematis and if you see new life and a lot of dead wood above, I would prune Lightly above the new life .
The Best Of Luck. Just Remember In Summer Clematis Like( A Warm Head And Cool Feet). It is well worth the effort as they can give you an Abundance of Pleasure..