I was wondering if you could tell me whether I would be able to dig up my Clematis and move it to a different location in my yard, it is on a trellis, which I would leave it attached to and move the whole thing. The spot I have it now in has become pretty shaded by 2 large flowering bushes and my Clematis likes to attach itself to one of them. Please let me as I do love it and don't want to lose it.

Thank you
Linda Adams
[email protected]

You certainly can move it. Prepare the planting hole in advance to lessen your own stress and add manure, bone meal and compost. When you're done planting please use mulch on top - 2" is fine.

Moving it while it's still attached to the trellis will be a major juggling act so if it becomes too awkward or too difficult feel free to cut it back. No harm will come to the clematis. Give it a big drink of Epsom Salt - 1 tablespoon to a gallon of lukewarm water, and it should send up new sprouts shortly (within a few weeks).

Please let us know how it worked out for you.

Going from shade to more sun, you might want to shade it with something until it recovers from transplanting. It is the most intense sun of the year right now.

It will tell you when by putting up strong new growth, then gradually give it more light.

As pirl said, be careful and maybe recruit some help with moving trellis and all. I visualize traumatic breakage if not moved gently.

Also, and this is something I just learned about Clematis, you should look up your particular plant by name and find out what "Pruning category" it belongs to. There are 3 (I think...maybe 4) and each category has a different pruning need. This was new information to me. Google on the name of your clematis and it should get you to a site that will tell you that. Hope this helps.

All good information!

You can also search by Pruning Group in our Clematis Database. Calif_Sue and zuzu, along with our many Clematis fans have listed over 1200 Clematis by Pruning Group, to date.

Select Search by characteristics (height, bloom color, etc) then check Group 1, 2 or 3.

But also don't stress about pruning groups if you don't know. Even if it is of the group that flowers on old growth and you cut it back it is unlikely to kill it. It just means you may be without blooms one year.

Oh thank you all so very much for all of the helpful information, I am very relieved to know that I can successfully move my Clematis with success, we actually have 2 of them planted so one is an early bloomer and the other is a late bloomer, they really are beautiful and will look great in the new garden section we designed. You all are so wonderful.

Linda - I think many of us would enjoy a video of you moving the two clematises still attached to the trellis!

We're all "rooting" for you.

Linda, off topic but I just wanted to say it's never a good idea to post your email in a public forum. One technique that spammers use is to visit as many web pages that they can and collect anything that looks like an email address to add to their mailing list. I would suggest you edit your post to remove it.