Clematis

Cut back or not, the clematis I have all seem to be growing, but all the growth is at the top , there's a few buds maybe half way down but the rest of the plant below looks dry and dead, which I know isnt, do I just leave them and let them get on with it or cut it right back, cant remember what month they flowered. Cheers

 

Where and when clematis flower dictate when you need to prune them for maximum flowering impact.

What varieties doo you have @robbo?

 

Sorry no idea, we just bought them and planted them last year, they flowered but can't remember when.

 

There are 3 main pruning groups for clematis.

Group 1 flowers early on previous growth so is pruned back after flowering but only if you need to control vigour to keep it withing bounds, remove dead wood or renovate it.

Group 2 has an initial flush of flowers in May/June on old wood and will produce a second flush of flowers in late summer if you feed it and prune lightly to deadhead and keep it within bounds.

Group 3s flowers on new growth so is pruned back hard in Feb/March then has new growth trained in to its supports to give good coverage.

All clematis will benefit from a generous handful or two of slow release feed for clematis, roses or tomatoes in early spring and all except the alpinas, koreanas and macropetalas need a decent water supply in hot and dry spells.

As yours are new @robbo they are probably still settling in so try just giving them a generous feed this spring and make sure they don't go thirsty in any hot spells. Take photos of the flowers and note when they do flower. That way they can be identified and their future care and pruning needs established.

 

I'd agree that it's best to just leave them for now @robbo, until you have some flowers. The general advice is - if it flowers before June, don't prune. That's simply because the early flowering types flower on old wood, and only need a general tidy up if they're getting too big for the space. Some are much smaller too. If you pruned them now, you risk losing the flowers. It sounds as if they're more likely to be a later type, with large flowers.
The large flowered ones which flower from early summer or so, are the ones which get hard pruned, but it won't matter at this stage to leave them to mature and grow, especially if they aren't from one of the big suppliers or a GC, where they're likely to be older plants with bigger root systems. The ones from supermarkets or similar, are sometimes quite small, young plants which need time to develop