Prune summer flowering clematis now

Prune summer flowering clematis now – those big, showy stars of the season which take your breath away scrambling up a trellis or twining romantically around a climbing rose.

Summer Flowering Clematis

By now just a big tangle of brown stems remains of last year’s growth. Leave these in place and you’ll just get a lot of flowers at the top of the plant, with an unsightly mass of bare stems at the base.

Keep your summer-flowering clematis flowering right up the stem by tackling them now. Large-flowered cultivars, like pink-striped ‘Nelly Moser’ and lovely soft blue ‘William Kennett’, need only light pruning: just take out any damaged, dead or weak stems and trim off the old flowers back to the next bud down.

Later-flowering clematis, which include velvety purple ‘Etoile Violette’, ruby red ‘Gravetye Beauty’ and spidery-petalled ‘Rubromarginata’ are even easier. Cut the whole lot back hard, to about 20cm above ground, always pruning to just above a pair of new buds. This year’s new growth will spring up from this point with renewed vigour to be covered in flowers again by summer.

Clematis at our Garden Centre in Pickering

Our knowledgeable staff here at the garden centre in Pickering are always ready to advise on how and when to prune your clematis, so feel free to ask!