My clematis vine has lost most of its leaves from the ground to about 4 feet up the stems. The remaining leaves are wilted, or discolored, or brown. It is growing on an arbor and has leaves and blooms at the top. Should I cut it back to the ground after it quits blooming or wait until next year and see what happens? Thanks for any input.
I don't grow these so I can't advise you on cutting back, but can you tell us a little more about the conditions so maybe someone can help you figure out what happened? Was this a new plant or did you have it last year? If it's new, when did you plant it? How much sun does it get? Any chance it's gotten too much or too little water (either from you or from Mother Nature)? How have you been fertilizing it?
Looks like sunburn to me. All my clematis did the same thing in a week long heat wave we had in July. They don't like really intense heat for a long period of time.
When mine do that, I just leave them be. The crispy foliage blows off eventually.
I gave up trying to follow the pruning instructions for the various Clematis and just leave them alone. This was the first year I didn't do any pruning on mine and they all came back just fine. They sprouted from the old wood as well as new shoots from the base of the plant. They were all much bigger and bloomed better than ever.
Another member advised me on this and it worked...probably because we have mild winters...
My clematis does the same thing every year. This year I decided to plant morning glories on the arbor so when the clematis turns brown in late summer, I have lush morning glory vines that hide the dead leaves. I used to cut the clematis down when it turned brown, but that left me with a bare arbor until frost. It always comes back every year like nothing was ever wrong. I don't know what it's problem is, it gets plenty of sun and the roots are kept cool by other plantings around it. At least I don't have a naked arbor this year.
All my clematis do the same thing when it's really hot here. Like JasperDale, I leave them alone. We just had some cooler temps and lots of rain from the remnants of Fay and mine are all putting on new green leaves and even a few late blooms.
Thanks to all for your suggestions. I think I will just leave it alone and see what happens next year.
there is a disease that Clematises get and it is called stem/ground rot, this happens on the stems just at soil level, no one knows what causes it, not even the professional Clematis growers know and there is no cure for it or protection other than when you plant a new Clematis plant into the soil, you should make sure the soil level in the pot is about 4-6 inches deeper than it was growing in the pot, that way you will always be guaranteed the stems under the soil will end up new fresh growth the following year, also these climbers like there foliage (head in the sun, but the root area in shade, to do this you just either plant something in front of the plant, or you lay a slab or largish stone over the soil at the root area, this helps to keep the root nice and cool, when you water, the water runs off the stone and into the roots as they do spread out a bit, they dont like the roots to be disturbed so if or when you hoe around these plants, you need to be careful not to go too deep, give them a feed after flowering and again in early spring when you see the first buds break on the stems. Like the others, I too can never remember the pruning regime for all the different types of clematis, so I just cut when I know a stem etc looks weak or when the plant is too rampant, but it is good idea to snip alternate stems every other year and this helps the plant make nice new bushier growth. Good luck. WeeNel.
