their Clematis in the summer time to have them bloom in the Fall?

I started our cut back yesterday after our high temps this past weekend. This
process will take me a week to get done. I do this for the plants in pots and
the last ones are those in the ground. I also bump up at this time.

hi Karmahappytoes (love your name! )

I am a beginner Clematis-lover so I've been reading a lót about them lately.
As far as I understand it when to prune a certain Clematis depends on when (Spring, Summer, Autumn/Winter) they bloom and whether they flower on old or new wood.

- Clematis that flower on last year's wood : no regular pruning required
- Clematis that flower on last year's ánd this year's wood: at the end of Winter remove weak or dead stems and prune back strong stems back at 2-3 foot to just above a couple of healthy buds + to encourage a 2nd flush prune back some stems by cutting back to large buds or stong side shoot immediately after bloom
- Clematis that flower on this year's wood: prune back hard at the end of Winter/ beginning of Spring

I have no actual experience with everything I wrote above, this is just what I read in books and online.
So, if you know differently please educate me!

Sorry Rose346, been extremely busy to check back in here. We are not the normal
Clematis grower. I listen to the old timers and had a lady come to one of my sales and she was telling me that she allows her Clematis to bloom in the spring and being that we are in Zone 8B around July 4th the first Clematis are done blooming. We get hot about that time and our clematis are looking pretty bad. I dead head and will get at least two flushes by July 4th. I then cut them back and fertilize, to have them all come back to life better than the first time they bloomed. You need to remember to fertilize right after cutting, then ones a week until they get the 3 foot stage then switch to a bloom booster. I belong to a FB group on clematis and
have told them what we do......it is catching on. I do not cut the fall bloomers, just leave them do their thing until the first frost then I'll cut them back for the winter months and I set the bigger ones by the foundation. Smaller ones will go into the garage. I don't go by be the prunning at certain numbers.

I believe this is a Jackmanii Clematis. I moved it from a shady area to a morning sun area about 8 years ago and have never pruned the bush, but it did fall over from a strong wind about 2 years ago and I lost about 2' of the plant. Do I really need to prune this plant?

hi Springsgranny,

your Clematis seems to be very happy with not being pruned!

@Springsgranny, Jackmanii is pruning group 3, which means it flowers on new wood. You don't say where you're located, but in my zone, it would pretty much die back to the ground over the winter. Therefore, it wouldn't be necessary for me to prune it at all, since Ma Nature takes care of that herself.