Enormous rambling clematis about 7 years old has blown off the fence it was on. If I just hack it back to nothing will it die? I’m guessing not.

fire up the innuendo machine, I’m going in

fire up the innuendo machine, I’m going in

I did lol at that 🙂

As you say ‘enormous’ I guess it is a Clematis Montana – flowers in Spring? Smaller flowers but lots of them? Ends up being quite ‘woody’ and thick?

If so it should be just fine – infact it is a way to renovate them after they have been allowed to get too big. Just keep watering it over the summer.

From t’internet:

To renovate, cut all stems back almost to the base, just after flowering. Apply a general fertiliser, mulch and water in dry spells. Response is generally good. Leave at least three years before pruning hard again

Quite possibly Montana. Evergreen, fairly woody. Flowers very early spring, white flowers.

At least I’ll be able to get the fence painted…

Okay – if it’s evergreen it is more likely to be Armandii (long glossy green leaves) or Avalanche (smaller feathered leaves)… (other varieties are available)

The outcome *should* be the same

i hacked ours to the ground with a hand saw when i moved in as it was swamping the door

its almost back to the same height as it was before i started…. thats been 2 years !

Top tip, don’t let it find its way up a tree.

I’m a bloke mcmoonter, I’m never going to find a clematis without someone pointing it out – where is it?

What’s that huge scary ghost thing in the middle?

I’m a bloke mcmoonter, I’m never going to find a clematis without someone pointing it out – where is it?

The Clematis is growing up the tree behind the middle urn.

EDIT – the scary ghost thing.

I don’t have much choice though really, do I? So I might as well hack it and if it dies, it dies.

I *think* that i heard on Gardeners world that you should prune them before they flower, then they flower later and in to the autumn.

This may have been an entirely different plant though.

Ideally, that may be true, but this is not an ideal situation. I’m not leaving it sprawling over half the patio until next March 🙂

My mrs prefers it if I rub her clematis, leaving just foliage that needs trimming – I’d never rough handle a clematis

Clematis pruning depends on type see here Sounds like yours is group 1