How to Prune Clematis Vines: 7 Pro Tips
Gorgeous flowers bloom off of clematis vines! To get the most blooms from your plant, you’ll want to prune it correctly and during the right season. Seasoned grower Jerad Bryant shares seven pro tips for pruning clematis vines.
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Clematis vines are deciduous climbing plants with flexible stems. They grow woody and thick over time, forming strong trunks like grapevines often do. Off the vines, flowers erupt into bloom from winter through late summer.
How and when to prune these vines depends on the season you’re in, your plant’s type, and the age of your plant. Knowing these three factors will help you make the right cuts at the right time. If you’ve inherited an old vine, don’t worry! We’ll also discuss how to rejuvenate mature specimens.
Let’s start by covering how to prune newly planted clematis vines before moving on to established specimen care. Without further ado, here are the seven pro tips for pruning these gorgeous flowering vines.
Sacrifice Flowers the First Year
A new specimen needs special care to set it up for a lifetime of successful growth. Though cutting back the plant sacrifices this year’s flowers, it ensures the vine sprouts ample roots underground. These healthy roots anchor the vine, creating a healthy, hardy specimen that’ll resist freezes, snowstorms, and drought.
Start by cutting back all vines on the plant to within a foot of the ground. The stems should stand between six and twelve inches tall above the soil. Cut back fall-planted clematis in spring, and spring-planted specimens immediately after planting.
Take care not to prune clematis in the thick of winter, as it can lead to cold damage and weak growth in spring. Wait until February or March before cutting new specimens.
Pinch Young Shoots
After a hard prune, wait for new shoots to develop in early spring. Let them grow a little, then pinch them back to buds lower on the stems. This encourages more side branching, which helps the clematis flower profusely in future seasons.
Pinching isn’t always necessary, though it’s especially important the first year after planting a clematis vine. Rather than a single, woody trunk, you want your plant to have many vining stems. The more stems and buds it has, the more flowers it’ll produce later in the growing season. Pinching helps accomplish this structure.
Repetitive pinching removes flower buds on specimens that bloom on old wood. You may do it every year on types that bloom on new wood, though old wood bloomers dislike annual pinching. Only pinch as necessary to encourage side branching on newly planted plants.
Know Your Variety
As mentioned above, different clematis bloom at various times of the year on new or old wood. When and how they bloom helps us differentiate them into three categories. These are the three main types:
| Group 1 |
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| Group 2 |
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| Group 3 |
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Most varieties’ tags have the group number on them. If not, you can look up the name of your variety and whether it’s in groups one, two, or three. If you don’t know your plant’s name, you can watch how it grows to determine which group it’s in!
Carefully observe your plant this year. Does it flower in late winter, spring, or summer? Does it bloom twice a year? And do flower buds sprout off of old or new growth? Track the bloom time and type, then compare your data to the three groups to see what clematis you have.
Prune During the Right Season
When to prune established specimens depends on their group. A good rule of thumb is to cut back new wood bloomers in spring and old wood bloomers after they flower. This chart offers further guidance:
| Group 1 |
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| Group 2 |
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| Group 3 |
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Though it’s best to cut plants in group three annually, it’s unnecessary for groups one and two. Group three clematis form flowers on new growth. If you let them grow without cutting them back, they’ll only form flowers on the ends of their vines. Prune them annually to encourage blossoms at eye level rather than high above your head!
Deadhead Spent Blooms
Deadheading is a funny term for cutting off spent flowers. Whether or not to deadhead depends on the type of growth you desire. Clematis flowers form seed heads with spider-like plumes that are incredibly decorative in the garden!
Deadheading encourages more blooms at the expense of the plumey seeds. Remove old, crunchy blooms if you desire more flowers, or leave them be if you’d like feathery seeds. The seeds may attract local birds, and the rambling vines offer them nesting habitats. Plant a vine or two to create a wildlife haven in your backyard!
Most hybrid varieties are sterile, meaning their seeds won’t sprout in the wild. Consult your local or state agricultural sites to determine which species are invasive or weedy in your area. Cultivated varieties and their hybrids are typically safe, while species from other continents may spread outside your garden into wild spaces. If there’s a clematis native to your region, this will be the best option.
Rejuvenate Old Specimens
Perhaps you inherited an old garden with a large, overgrown clematis, or you forgot about one in the backyard. No matter how big your clematis is, hard pruning will encourage new, healthy growth and a profusion of blooms. A little maintenance now ensures healthy vines for years to come.
Start rejuvenation during the correct season to avoid winter or summer damage. Here are the best times to renovate established specimens according to their group:
| Group 1 | Early spring after flowering finishes |
| Group 2 | Late winter |
| Group 3 | Early spring as buds begin swelling |
Hard prune by cutting back all stems within a foot of the ground. Though you’ll see few flowers this year, the extreme cuts encourage dense growth and side branching for years, leading to better blooming periods in the following seasons. Wait three to four years after rejuvenation to hard prune again, as the plants need time to recover their lost growth.
Train New Growth
This tip leads to easy clematis pruning next year. Because these vines ramble, twine, and climb, it’s best to give them support to grow on. Otherwise, they’ll clamber up your trees, house walls, and tall shrubs!
Some varieties may reach 30 feet or taller! A hefty, strong support system at planting is crucial for long-term growing success. Arbors, trellises, and dead tree trunks all work well.
You can also try an unconventional support system from repurposed materials. Old metal bed frames, bicycles, and shelving units are some of the many materials you can reuse in the garden! Give them another life before throwing them away; your clematis will thank you!
