"Kay Easton" wrote:

I thought the theory was early flowering clematis - prune after
flowering, late ones, prune in the spring? But I find that my early
flowering ones, which I don't prune, do fine, but the late flowering
ones have all their new shoots nibbled by slugs and just disappear.
Since I'm not into killing slugs, I shall content myself with early
flowering clematis and late flowering honeysuckles.

All the "rules" can be flouted and you will still get results but, if you
don't prune them at all, the late-flowerers will put on so much growth
before they flower (on the *new wood*) that they tend to become
unmanageable, so these are best pruned hard (down to, say, 4' in November
and then to a final 1' or so in early March so that any frosted/damaged
buds can be pruned-out). These timings depend on where you live and how
hard the winter has been

The early flowerers bloom on short spurs from *last year's* wood, so if
you prune hard over the winter they will bloom in August-Sept. on new
wood, but you'll lose the early-summer flowers, which tend to be the
choicest and most abundant.

I usually "dismantle" my early flowerers in February, by snipping through
all the leaf stalks and then retraining the stems, evenly and lower-down
on the supports. By doing this you can distribute the plant better and by
that time you'll be able to tell which stems have died and where the
others may have died-back to.

Having said that, I have seen some gorgeous early-flowering clematis which
the owners don't prune at all.

Finally, don't forget that the early small-flowered clematis (C. montana,
C. alpina etc.) generally don't need pruning at all. Prune only if you do
need to keep these in check, and do it immediately after flowering.

- Tom.