Clematis Dr rupple
DickieLeysh
Posts: 27
in Plants
Has anyone had any great success with this? I planted mine last spring and it grew well but didn't flower. I've read online that I need to prune it back to just above a strong set of buds. The plant is currently showing some healthy looking green buds on last year's growth. I'm a bit nervous chopping it back so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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Dickie yes cut it back now and in a few weeks give it a feed, it should flower, some clematis take a while to settle so be patient.
Doctor Ruppel is an Early Large Flowered Group clematis ( Group 2 ) and it should flower May/June then later on new wood. If you prune it hard back now you will lose the early flush of flowers, but you will get more, smaller, flowers late Summer.
How many stems does your plant have at present ?
3 main stems is not enough to produce a good display, chop the 3 stems back hard now down to about 1 ft. This will produce more flowering stems for later season this year, then next year go to the Group 2 pruning regime.
I have it in my garden, usually flowers well. I always feed it each spring with clematis feed..