Should I prune a montana clematis?

[TuttiFrutti]

We've got 2 montana clematis, both planted last spring. My gardening book says don't prune montana at all, but the labels on the plants when I bought them says prune down to 30cm in first year. Which is right?

Both! It depends really. In theory, if you prune a stem back to a pair of buds, then new stems will grow on both sides of the cut so you get two stems where you had one. If it's a new plant and you've only got a couple of stems, cutting it back will give you a plant with more stems from the base. If you want it to cover a wider area this is good.

However, Montana flowers early in the year on the stems that were there last year, so if it's got nice and tall and you prune it, you are cutting off bits that could have flowers this year, which might be a shame. And if you have bought it to grow up a tree you don;t need to worry about lots of stems from the base really. I would leave it until it's flowered, then cut it back if you want to try to make it bushier. Then you get the flowers this year and it has time to grow new stuff to flower on next year.

Either way, if a montana is happy where it is growing you won't do any damage by cutting it back. And if it gets too big for its boots, you can just hack it back and it will be fine.

montanas are no trouble at all - personally I would just leave them to get on with it!

Thanks Didisaythat. Why can't the gardening books be as helpful as you!

nah just leave them until after they have flowered. Prune then because the flowers grow on previous years growth. If you prune now you wont get many flowers.