Using clematis in the garden

Using Clematis in the Garden

Clematis are useful and versatile plants that give a lot for little maintenance. In this lesson I'll introduce you to the different types and how we use them and prune them.

Different types of clematis flower at different times, do different jobs in the garden and need different pruning.

Types of Clematis

• Early-spring-flowering: Clematis macropetala and Clematis alpina are the two main types; cultivars within those make up most of the spring-flowering ones.
• May-flowering: Clematis montana
• Early-summer-flowering
• Late-summer flowering

We use them all, but mostly the early and the late, as they're useful for growing through roses, which act as supports:

1. Early-flowering ones clothe the rose stems before the rose flowers. The clematis is pruned after flowering to take off the flowered growth, revealing the rose ready to flower.
2. Same idea in reverse for late-flowering clematis - as the rose finishes flowering, the clematis takes over that space and flowers. With a good choice of rose, hips start to appear as the clematis fades, giving three periods of interest.

How to Prune Clematis

Clematis are little effort and give a lot of reward - always generous flowering and easy if you get the pruning right.

• Like for the shrubs, pruning is usually straight after flowering.
• The exception is late-flowering clematis (late August-October) - leave these and cut down to the ground in February, to avoid encouraging new growth that can be damaged by winter cold.