Last updated on March 2nd, 2022
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This breed of clematis is a beautiful vining plant with early blooms that bring about a great deal of fragrance, and being evergreen they are extremely popular.
It can reach between 2 and 5m in height, requires partial sun or full sun, deep and cool soil, and with all of that in play, it will provide beautiful flowers as early as March. This particular variety is perfectly suited to container growing and will quickly make its way up any lattice work or walls that you have.
Once you have planted your clematis and allowed it to properly settle, it requires very little care thereafter. Because they bloom early in the year, you can prune them relatively early as well, but it only really needs pruning to control the size and remove any dead or damaged stems. Young plants should be pruned back to around 30cm after the first spring to encourage the plant to produce more shoots lower down so that they become bushier plants. Word of warning, established plants don’t usually respond well to hard pruning.
When to prune
As with any plant, you want to prune after the flowering cycle has finished. Pruning the clematis is designed to increase the foliage density and improve flowering for the upcoming season. The more it is pruned, the more flowers you will get and you want to perform your pruning in March or April depending on when your clematis has flowered because it should be pruned as soon as it has finished flowering.
How to prune
It is important to note that these clematises don’t require pruning like the clematises in groups 1 and 2, they only need pruning to control their size. In order to prune you want to use the sharpest secateurs you have because the sharper they are, the less likely it is that you will need to make multiple cuts. This is beneficial for the plant because each cut you make leaves a wound that is susceptible to infection, just in the same way as a cut on your body would leave you susceptible to infection.
When you are ready, prune back the stems that have already produced flowers. You want to cut them back to a good framework, cut back any branches that are dead or dying, and any weak stems should be cut back completely. Pruning established plants should take place more frequently than with brand new plants. In fact, you don’t really want to prune for the first few seasons because you want to allow the roots ample time to establish themselves. After that, you can take advantage of pruning established plants regularly in an effort to keep the blooms and the flowers potent, fragrant and to control the size.
Overall, caring for the clematis armandii is quite simple. You can plant them in the spring and let it bask in the sunlight (in the ground or in pots) after which you can simply prune them regularly and lightly to encourage better growth. Then sit back, relax and enjoy the early blooms that produce small and vanilla-like white flowers.
