Hi BF!
My understanding is if the
flowers bloom on the current season's growth, it's one of the new-woods clematis. You want to prune these back hard so there is plenty of new growth for
flowers. Clematis that bloom on previous years' growth are old-woods. You don't want to prune these ones hard, because if you do,
flowers won't bud. Then there are those (like mine) which blooms first on old growth (
spring), then again on new growth (summer).
Someone way more experienced will be around soon to teach us both!
), how do you know which ones you have? I am interested in covering a steel arbor and want the ones that will not need to be trimmed back to 12 inches each year. Can someone provide assistance? 