How to prune winter Clematis?
Do you know about this? For the knowledge related to pruning winter Clematis, keep reading!
Recently, many flower friends have asked "How to prune Clematis? How much should the third-order branches be cut? Should the second-order branches be pruned?"
Actually, pruning Clematis cannot be simply done by the classification of branches. Clematis is different from shrub roses. Clematis, in principle, retains more branches, resulting in more flowers, and correspondingly requires more fertilizer and water. How to prune specifically? This depends on the growth and variety characteristics of each Clematis.
Pruning principles for Clematis with different growth habits
Due to the relationship between maintenance and variety characteristics, Clematis plants often show significant differences in growth. Generally speaking, Clematis that have been maintained for more than a year usually have a large number of strong new branches, while there are relatively few weak and old branches. For smaller Clematis plants, pruning and training in winter will be much simpler.
For example, as shown in the picture above, the same second-order and third-order branches show significant differences in growth. Therefore, it is difficult to say which level of branches should be cut for Clematis. Instead, we should cut the weak and overly thin branches. As shown in the picture above, the lower branch, although it is a second-order branch, clearly showed weak growth after being trained and flowering last year. The entire branch consists of thin short branches, and such branches with poor vitality should be completely cut off when there are enough branches.
How to prune winter Clematis?
For branches trained last year that have again sprouted strong new branches, the old parts with poor vitality should be cut off from the point where the new branches sprout. For the strong new branches of the current year, the top part should be cut off, and the top of each new branch should be cut to break the apical dominance, allowing all the buds on the branch to evenly absorb nutrients and ensure uniform sprouting after training.
For smaller Clematis, we can remove all the leaves from the branches, then prune simply before training. Since smaller Clematis plants have less complex growth patterns, removing all leaves before pruning and training can better observe the trend of the branches and plan the distribution of the branches for training.
Should the branches trained last year be untied and retrained?
This can be done or not, entirely depending on the needs of the training shape. If the shape requires untying, untie and retrain to a suitable position before securing. As shown in the two pictures above.
For Clematis with many strong new branches, pruning is relatively random. If you want more flowers, keep more branches; if you want a cleaner shape, cut off more branches. For older Clematis not growing well, pruning needs to be more careful. It cannot be pruned too drastically, otherwise, there will be too few flowers in spring.