8 Top Clematis Growing Tips For Beautiful Flowers

Clematis is a favorite flowering perennial vine. Once you know your variety, its pruning needs, and ideal growing conditions, you can grow beautiful blooms for years to come.

This is part of the Complete Clematis Care Guide with tips on planting, propagation, fertilizing, and more.

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Clematis Growing Tips & Inspiration

1Choose What Works Where You Are

As with all ecological gardening, first learn which varieties are known to be invasive in your area and avoid them.

From there, native varieties are ideal or find varieties that thrive in your area without being too tender or aggressive.

If you are planting the clematis in a container, choose a variety that is hardy to at least one zone colder than yours and be prepared to properly protect it in winter.

2Choose a Sunny Location

While clematis vines can tolerate partial shade, some may not flower if they do not get adequate sun.

Choose a full sun location, sheltered from harsh winds. Full sun means six or more hours of direct sun a day. It does not have to be six continuous hours—it can be a few here and there that total six or more.

3Install the Trellis First

Clematis are not tough plants. When green, the stems are fragile and vulnerable to bending and breakage.

This can be a big problem if you get the plant established and then decide to add trellis later.

Those tiny tendrils will have already wrapped themselves around whatever is available and the stems may be intertwined.

Do yourself a favor and start with the trellis first, get the plant in the ground, and check on your baby frequently, adding twine or other supports as needed to guide its growth.

4Visit Your Clematis Daily

While some garden plants practice forgiveness, your clematis will not tolerate completely dry soil.

Check on it daily to ensure the soil is moist and set up an automatic watering system for super hot days or times you will be away.

An inch or so of organic mulch is excellent to help prevent soil from drying out.

Watch Clematis Tips

5Know Your Soil

Instead of throwing fertilizers or other items on your soil and hoping for healthy growth, consider getting a soil test from an accredited laboratory first to understand what you have.

Find a lab that will check for a variety of macro and micronutrient levels, pH level, and provide recommendations to amend any deficiencies or monitor any excesses.

Plants can only use what they need (they will not overeat) and only if conditions are right to take up the nutrients from the soil. Soil pH plays a big role in nutrient uptake.

Adding excess nutrients—particularly in the form of synthetic fertilizers—doesn’t help the plants and may harm the soil and water.

Know your growing environment to make the best choices.

6Get an Eye for Fungi

One of the worst problems with clematis is clematis wilt. Caused by fungi, a healthy-looking plant can wilt down to nothing within days.

In addition to checking moisture levels daily, watching for wilt can save your plant’s life. The moment you notice it, it’s time to act.

7Know Your Type

You don’t need to know the name of your clematis, but you do need to know it’s pruning group. Of the three groups, there’s just one that needs a good haircut each year.

8Learn to Propagate

With so many beautiful options, you can’t have just one clematis. Learn how to propagate clematis cuttings so you can grow more from the ones you have.

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛