The genus, Clematis, contains a lot of different species and hundreds of cultivars developed over the past two centuries. However, they can generally be divided into 3 groupings based on their growth habit, season of bloom and flower types.

Pruning schedules for clematis also fall into these 3 categories and is covered in our Care and Maintenance pages.

Since these clematis flower early in the season, they do not have time to develop flower buds in the spring. Therefore, these types all set their flower buds in the fall and they spend the winter on the vine.

Generally, these clematis have single, bell-shaped or open bell flowers. The blooms are relatively small ranging from ¾-2 inches in diameter.

Pruning Group 1

These clematis bloom in late spring to early summer. The flowers are born on side shoots that develop in the early spring. For many of them, a second flush of flowers appear in late summer at the tips of the current year's growth.

The flowers of this group are usually large and saucer like in shape. There may be single, double and semi-double blooms and there are many, many cultivars of this type.

Pruning Time: Prune this type of clematis before the new growth begins in the early spring. Remove the dead and damaged parts of the vine. You can also cut back longer stems to a flower bud. In the end, you should keep the pruning to a minimum especially for the large, double flower types which take more time to develop on the vine.

Cultivars of double flowered clematis in Group 2 include 'Multiblue', 'Mrs. P. T. James', 'Belle of Woking' and 'Duchess of Edinburough'. Included in this category are popular cultivars of 'The President' and 'Nelly Moser'. Often, the second flush of blooms on the double types will produce single flowers.

Pruning Group 2

All of the late season flowering clematis bear their flowers on the current year's growth. Included are several large, saucer shaped flowers as well as small flowered cultivars with either single or double blooms. Some of these are herbaceous species which do not form a woody stem like most clematis. Their flowers tend to be single, bell or tubular shaped.

Pruning Group 3