To prune this sort of clematis, you will have to locate the healthy buds. The best time to prune these plants is in February or March. Clematis vines grow quickly and need pruning. Clematis are some our best-loved flowering climbers but although they may be easy to grow given the right conditions, there is often confusion on how to prune and care for them. Clematis need to be pruned regularly to prevent them becoming a tangled mass of stems. Large Flowering Hybrid Clematis. If you want to extend the useful life of your pruning tools there are some basic care. Pruning depends on when clematis plants flower, so you must first determine the variety’s growing cycle, suggests Sunset. Dwarf types reach only 24 inches in height, while others may grow to twenty feet or more. Watch the plant’s growth, bloom time and dormancy. Pruning and caring for clematis armandii. Prune your clematis in the early spring. Without pruning the plant will become bare at the base, with all of the flowers high up on the plant. Another approach is to cut the whole plant back drastically every few years just before growth begins, with little or no pruning in the intervening time; in this case, you give up only the earliest blossoms in the season you prune. This will help prevent disease transmission, you will have to do it before you start pruning and every time you change plants. The objectives in pruning clematis … Keep in mind that you must disinfect all the tools before trimming your Mountain Clematis. Once you have located the buds, use pruning or garden shears to cut the vine just above the buds, removing the top part of the plant and keeping the buds intact. A simpler option when pruning Group 2 clematis vines is to severely prune the plant back by half in alternate years. Spring Pruning Clematis, an easy visual lesson on how and where to clip with free video. Since the armandii Clematis blooms quite early in the year, pruning can take place at the end of the blooming. Our comprehnsive guide will show you how to properly care for your Clematis plants. Pruning serves to increase foliage density and enhance flowering in the following season. The clematis in this group produce a heavy display of large flowers in June on old wood and will often bloom again in late summer on new growth. This makes them somewhat of a challenge to prune. Give your clematis a fresh, clean start for the new season. Regular pruning encourages strong growth and flowering and keeps the plant within bounds. Clematis is a genus of climbing vines popular in gardens for their very showy flowers and attractive, whirlwind-like seed clusters shortly after. Spring pruning clematis is one of the first garden chores of the new season I get to do and it is so rewarding. They should be about a third of the way down from the top of the plant. Pruning offers many benefits for clematis vines. Regardless of the cultivar, prune all dead stems after a hard winter. It improves the overall health of the vines and encourages new growth and increased blooms. 2.1 Needed care of pruning tools. Clematis cultivars vary in size, flower form, color, and time of bloom. Once properly settled in, Clematis armandii requires very little care. Pruning. Begin by removing any dead stems or weak growth. Since the flowers are the most important aspect of these plants, their bloom time dictates when and how to prune clematis.