Yes, absolutely, I do it all the time.. it creates a bushier plant and more flowers for you. I tend to wait until the plant is a few feet tall then I pinch out all the tips. I sometimes do it more than once on a gr. 3 Pete..
Interesting. Many of my Group 3s wouldn't be a few feet tall until about June though, in most years. One or two are quite far on this year but we've had no winter and a very warm spring. I might try it on one of the Etoile Violettes.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I have never pinched out a clematis but I do deadhead when they're young and I do try and train as many stems as possible along a horizontal line and that seems to make them send out more short flowering shoots - same principal as with climbing roses.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast. "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
They can be pinched out confidently even when quite short, one I did in Spring when about a foot tall, and it responds by producing more shoots from below ground. Pinching out the leading shoot produces two more.. depending on clematis I may also pinch these out as they grow.. it stops the plant becoming overly tall and lanky..
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They're not like annuals - sweet peas etc
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I might try it on one of the Etoile Violettes.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
Pinching out the leading shoot produces two more.. depending on clematis I may also pinch these out as they grow.. it stops the plant becoming overly tall and lanky..
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw