CLEMATIS MONTANA - CUT BACK?

Pruning overgrown Clematis montana
Clematis montana is the most vigorous of the deciduous Clematis species flowering in late spring on the previous year's ripened growth.

Pruning of established plants is usually kept to a minimum. Winter-damaged growth should be removed in spring. After flowering overlong shoots can be cut back to healthy buds. The simplest way to do this is to use shears to clip over the plant to keep it tidy.

Due to their vigour older plants, especially if neglected, may become a mass of congested growth. It may be possible to thin out this growth, but often the only practical solution is to cut all the stems back to within a few inches of the base. If this is done in early summer and the plants watered and fed during the growing season they should flower the following spring but if the pruning is carried out in winter a whole flowering season will be lost.

Hope this helps.

Debs

You can prune it back each year ,it will still be O.K. just keep it to the size you want. Please don't call it a thug , it is a lovely early Clematis.

Mine was a thug......until I murdered it last summer (evil laugh....) Seriously tho, you won't kill it by pruning it hard every year, but you will reduce its flowering potential.

I once lived in a house with a Victorian conservatory and Montana had been allowed to grow over the roof looked fantastic in flower through glass until it brought the roof down>So left unchecked thug is not too strong a word.

A friend of mine was given one to grow over a small dead shrub. She insists on not pruning it even though I have warned her of the size it will get to. I have visions of half her garden disappearing under said clematis