Clematis question

I was hoping for some advice.

I have a clematis that is a few years old. This year it really thrived & produced a lot of flowers.
All good.
My issue is that it only has one, woody stem coming from the earth. Now this one stem does fork off a few inches above the ground creating a three main stems going off in different directions.
I’m wondering if I should give it a really hard prune. Just a few inches above the ground to see if that will encourage the roots to send up new stems? Also, I’ve genuinely no idea whether it’s type, 1, 2 or 3?
My concern about pruning so hard is I wouldn’t be pruning to just above new shoots as there aren’t any low down. Just a woody stem.

I’m happy to show images



Dave

 

@Dave Taylor, I'm thinking it's the wrong time of year to prune any clematis so don't do it now.

Can you remember when it flowered and do you have any photos when it was in flower please? That may help us to identify whether it's a Type 1, 2 or 3. Type 1 is rarely pruned unless it gets really out of hand, Type 2 is pruned lightly after flowering in late spring/early summer and Type 3 is usually pruned hard in about Feb/March as soon as new shoots appear.

Clematis needs quite a lot of water, and appreciates a good manure mulch (although not touching the stem) which together might help spur it on to produce new shoots from ground level.

Hope this helps.

 

Hey, so here are photos of it right now. It actually started flowering very early. Maybe from March & it hasn’t stopped since. If I was to prune it wouldn’t be till next year.

 

The first thing you need to do is clear a proper area around it. All that grass is just competition, and when you feed it's just getting the benefit of that. If it was bought as a young plant from a supermarket or similar, it would also have benefited from growing on in pots until it was bit more mature before planting out. Those plants are basically cuttings from the previous year, and aren't ready to plant out in the ground. When you buy clems from a reliable outlet, the plants are at least a couple of years old
It looks like one of the Florida types, which are Group 3, and therefore get pruned in early spring. They'll produce more stems from below ground, provided they have room to do that. They require more food than the early [Group 1] types. The Group 2s and 3s also need decent soil to thrive.
They also need a more sheltered site, and that doesn't look ideal, but it's always hard to tell from photos unless there's more info to help as well.

Here's a bit of info from one of the specialists [Thorncroft]
Florida Clematis Group Superior Quality Climbers - thorncroftclematis.co.uk

 

I think it is more likely to be a Group 2 clematis, maybe Crystal Fountain.
Clematis CRYSTAL FOUNTAIN Fairy Blue Evipo038

It needs a light prune in early spring. I agree it needs weeding around it. Have you fed it? Clematis are quite greedy and they don't like to dry out either.

 

If it's a Group 2 and gets cut back in spring, it'll behave like Group 3 though. Group 2s usually don't get pruned, other than a light trim after the initial flowering to encourage a later, 2nd flush, or a cut back when they outgrow a space too much.

Location and conditions also dictate whether a 2nd flush happens as well. We rarely get much of a later showing of flowers here with the earlier clems [although it also depends on the variety] so I rarely bother now with a trim after flowering.