Best planted out in autumn, shirley... If your clematis flowered earlier on, specially with larger flowers, had a short pause and then produced more, they're probably Group 2 ones - these don't need pruning, but can be 'tidied up' immediately after the first flowering is finished, removing any untidy or dead stuff. If you do it now, you will lose the flowers you have. Won't kill it if you do cut back a bit though. I have Niobe and didn't get round to the tidy up at the right time, so mine probably looks exactly like yours does - bits of dead everywhere, but I'm not going to cut it now because I can see its producing new growth again. I might snip off any dead leaves though, but it won't be easy, its a tangled mess (in a pot, like yours)

Glad this has been brought up as I have a Nelly Moser which is group 2 that has just got into its stride (I think its year 3) over a pergola. I was told by the nurseryman to prune heavily in winter or early spring before it starts to grow again if I wanted to keep leaves and flowers on the upright otherwise it would be o.k. on the top but would have a short back and sides. Advice please Bamboo.

Hmm, well that's a bit puzzling, Sarraceniac - if you prune Nelly Moser in winter or spring, you cut off the ripened wood from the previous year, and that's what bears the earlier, larger flowers. You'd still get flowering, but only the later, smaller ones. Prune group 2 ones are a bit difficult because they can look untidy with no pruning at all, so you've got two choices - you can 'tidy up' by cutting out dead or unpleasant looking parts between the first and second flowerings (the second flowers come off this year's wood, not last year's), or you can cut it down in winter and sacrifice the early, large flowers if it gets to the point where the stems are bare for the first 10 feet or so and you don't like that. You could take the whole thing down in winter every few years and not every year as a sort of compromise.

Thanks. I've got a friend who has one and she (why are all my gardening friends women and all my boozing friends men? :o)) ) never prunes at all but as the lower part of the plant is in other growth it doesn't really matter. You can trust me to grow it over a pergola. Sorry, Shirley, if I stole your thread, it just seemed to fit here discussion-wise.

Ha ha, what you need is a boozer who's also a gardener, then you might find that's a female!