Oh, the precious clematis

The first clematis vine I ever bought was treated with kid gloves. Almost literally too! I went around reading everything I could about the vine because I kept being told that pruning was not only necessary but quite difficult.

I studied English gardening books (who could possibly know better?!?) and walked away with a confused understanding. There are three groups of clematis ..early, middle and late, and each one is treated differently with pruning. The early ones need a little help after blooming to shape them up, but be careful what you cut. The middle and late ones were said to need pruning in the early spring before they started to bud. And, it was always noted and underlined to only cut the dead wood back! Now, if something hasn’t bloom or leafed yet, how do you know? I took a lesson from a master garden friend while he pruned his and could in no way translate the information once I was back home with a pair of scissors in my hand.

So, that first clematis got fussed over so much that I would spend hours fooling around with it, and then I sort of got bored and just let it go. It seemed to do fine and the bits of dead vine got to where they didn’t bother me.

Then, I up and leave new England for Scotland where there’s clematis everywhere.
Walls, fences, in trees …you name the spot and it’s there. And guess what? They don’t do anything to it here! Great huge clumps are it are on fences and even in winter it looks interesting. And the blooms? I’ve never seen so many!!!!