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My three Jackmanii Clematis are blooming all over the place and they are beautiful right now and will continue to be for many, many weeks throughout the summer. There is really nothing more spectacular than Clematis. They grow up to 20 feet high (depending on the type you plant) and bloom for a good long spell. Once the flowers fade they leave lovely spidery seed heads and in the autumn they fill the air with intoxicating fragrance.
Clematis, once set, hardly require any maintenance and that is my kind of flowering plant. Matter of fact one does not even have to prune it. However, if you are going to prune it, then you need to prune it correctly.
Before I get into pruning let me take a minute to talk about the correct planting for Clematis.
1. The hole needs to be 18 inches deep and 18 inches wide.
2. You need to work lots of compost into your soil.
3. Plant you Clematis plant with two sets of leaf nodes below the soil surface.
4. Cover with dirt packing down on the sides as you go along to get out any air pockets.
5. Put 4 inches of mulch on top of your soil.
6. Keep the mulch 8 inches from the stem of the Clematis.
7. Water well for the first 14 days.
Now to the pruning and I want to note here that so far I have not had to prune these three Clematis and another one I have growing in another part of my garden. Also I want to note here that before I really knew how to plant correctly as above, I had managed to kill off 4 other Clematis.
For the 6 to 10 foot Clematis which are ones such as Betty Corning, Gipsy Queen which grow well on trellis or train into small trees and shrubs like lilacs do the following:
1. Prune only in the spring.
2. To keep plants lush cut all the stems to within a foot of the ground leaving just two to four sets of buds per stem.
3. Have a trellis to train your new vines onto spacing them apart so your flowers will show better.
For Clematis like the Multi-Blue and the white Artic Queen which grow about 10 to 12 feet tall and are great for covering pergolas, fences, arbors and trellis then do the following.
1. Prune only in the spring.
2. Cut away broken branches and thin to make the vine look balanced.
3. Trim back the tips.
4. Secure or refasten your branches to your trellis etc. with strips of plastic covered wire or fabric to avoid a big tangle of vines in the future.
There is a group of Clematis like the pink Superba or Tetrarose which have small flowers and these types do not die back in the winter and will bloom early in the spring. For these you do the following.
1. Prune only in the spring.
2. Never remove the main stems.
3. Cut back the tips which are sometimes killed off in zones 4 and 5 and if that occurs you need to prune very early in the spring.
4. Cut out the damaged wood and any winter damaged stems as soon as you discover them.
5. After the vines bloom, prune the stem tips to keep the vines within the bounds of your support should you need to.
6. If you have thin spots then prune a few side branches near the thin areas and they you can urge the new growth into the thin areas to fill up the holes.
I hope you plant some of these in the event your garden does not have any. They will give you years of rewarding beauty.
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Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arlene’s Gardens and to read her gardening diaries and to take a walk through her pictorial garden or click on Arlene’s Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books, including her new book, “The ABC’s of Wine and Beer Making”. Remember to check out her artwork, especially of her fruits and vegetables. Arlene says, “All my royalties from the sale of my books go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my site.”
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