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flash

By Flash

Shropshire, United Kingdom

So many questions! (1) Clematis - when do you cut them down and how low do you cut them. (2) Wysteria - it's growing along a fence- grown about 12ft - do I do anything with it? Think I made a mistake planting it by the fence - can it be cut down and moved to side of house or will that kill it? This is it's second year.




Answers

 

Clematis. Now that depends on what they are. The rule is if they flower before June,then don't prune. But that is a bit vague. We need to know the names of your Clematis to give proper pruning advice.
Cannot help with Wisteria, never managed to get one.

3 Oct, 2013

 

If you're ever going to attempt to move the wisteria, now is the time to do it. You may not get away with it, the root spread might be very large, but it's only going to get bigger. You should already have very strong supports attached to your house wall, ready to tie onto and which will allow the wisteria to climb up unaided later on. Before you do move it though, have a look at the RHS page on Wisteria pruning - you can have it as a climber, when it needs pruning twice a year, or you can train it as a tree form. Left to run untrammeled, without any pruning, expect a very invasive height of 35 feet with a spread of 16 feet as a minimum. Obviously, as a climber up your house, pruning will involve the use of long ladders...

4 Oct, 2013

 

Thank you so much - I have no idea what to do about the wisteria as living on my own I cant really put supports on my house - I thought it somehow adhered to the bricks. I may just leave it crawl along my interwoven fence and see what happens and try not to let it grow in height but grow along. I have several clematis and have no ida of any of their names - but all are very full on and bushy and the leaves are dying.

6 Oct, 2013

 

Do look up pruning/training for wisteria - they flower better if they're pruned properly, and you don't want it taking over everywhere or you'll need a machete to get out. Wisteria is a twiner, so doesn't self cling.

As for the clematis, most do drop their leaves for winter - if you know when they start flowering, we might be able to hazard a guess at which varieties they are. There's a difference between those that start late (late June/early July) and carry on till autumn without a break, and those which flower earlier with large flowers, then about 6 weeks later, another crop of flowers, but smaller this time. Then there's the early flowering group that come out in spring and don't flower again till the following year.

7 Oct, 2013

How do I say thanks?

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