Training a Clematis to go up, then out

hardCopy

Hi all, we're trying to grow Clematis to screen off a high fence in our garden.

It's already run straight up a wall, which doesn't need screening and now we want it to spread out over a 1m high section of fence.

Photos here:




I'm now at a point where I feel I need to intervene to ensure coverage, what should I do? I have no idea where to cut it to fan it out.

Many thanks

Ms2011

When training a climber you should always train it horizontally rather than vertically as the plant will naturally try to grow vertically towards the light.
By training the plant horizontally it will continuously try to grow vertically towards the light giving you more plant to cover a space.
Hope I'm explaining that clearly

GinSoaked

The key thing with Clematis is NOT to try and bend old wood. New shoots you can put where you like but once the wood starts to harden bending it into a new position will often kill it.

I'd cut it down and as above train it laterally down low so all the new growth can grow up.

I find clematis are tricky. This is the first year that I can say mine are healthy because of the lockdown I have time to give to them! Make sure to plant it very deeply they like cool roots, they’re hungry plants too so a regular feed and watering is a must and pay attention to what group it belongs to (1,2,3) as this tells how and when to prune. All these things should contribute to a healthy vigorous climber. (So I’m told anyway!)

Lumen

GinSoaked wrote: »

I'd cut it down and as above train it laterally down low so all the new growth can grow up.

But in this case the wall itself doesn't need to be covered, so couldn't it be trained along the top of the wall?

GinSoaked

Lumen wrote: »

But in this case the wall itself doesn't need to be covered, so couldn't it be trained along the top of the wall?

Sorry should have given more info first time around. You don't really want all the growth sat on the top of the railings where its more prone to wind damage, no matter what you do most of the growth will find its way upwards.

I would have thought it was fairly obvious that it will be easy to tie into the bottom of the railings so thats where I'd start training it along. The uprights will then probably provide support for new growth.

Also it looks like a form of evergreen Clematis armandii (Apple blossom ?) which can be quite vigorous, you normally prune after flowering, far easier to go along say the middle of the railings and cut back everything than to try and sort out a mass of growth all sitting on the top. Re: pruning, you don't need to prune it but if growing well it may improve flowering and will soon romp back over the top of the fence.

hardCopy

GinSoaked wrote: »

Sorry should have given more info first time around. You don't really want all the growth sat on the top of the railings where its more prone to wind damage, no matter what you do most of the growth will find its way upwards.

I would have thought it was fairly obvious that it will be easy to tie into the bottom of the railings so thats where I'd start training it along. The uprights will then probably provide support for new growth.

Also it looks like a form of evergreen Clematis armandii (Apple blossom ?) which can be quite vigorous, you normally prune after flowering, far easier to go along say the middle of the railings and cut back everything than to try and sort out a mass of growth all sitting on the top. Re: pruning, you don't need to prune it but if growing well it may improve flowering and will soon romp back over the top of the fence.

Apple blossom it is, thanks for the tips