Clematis Fall Cleanup: When a Mature Vine Has to Come Off the Trellis
By the end of the growing season, a healthy clematis can leave you with a surprising amount of vine wrapped around its support.
Sometimes that growth needs to come off.
That's exactly what happened with one of my container-grown clematis last fall.
This was a Group 2 clematis growing in a window box, with its stems climbing Scroll Trellises mounted around a window. The window box itself was mounted to the house, and I needed to move the clematis into protected winter storage.
That created a practical problem.
The container couldn't move. The trellis couldn't move. And an entire season's worth of clematis was attached to it.
The vine had to come off the trellis.
Important: This wasn't normal Group 2 fall pruning. The container situation was driving my decision. Group 2 clematis normally retain much of their older growth because their early flowers are produced on shoots from the previous year's stems. Cutting one back hard can mean sacrificing that early flush of flowers.
Why This Clematis Had to Come Down
My clematis had spent the growing season climbing the black mesh surrounding the window.
Clematis climbs in an interesting way. It doesn't cling to a wall. Instead, its leaf petioles—the small stalks that connect the leaves to the stem—curl around thin objects they encounter as the plant grows.
Scroll Trellis uses 1/2-inch mesh, creating a closely spaced network of thin strands for those petioles to encounter and wrap around.
That's wonderful while the plant is growing.
At the end of a season, however, it can mean there are an incredible number of little attachments between a mature clematis and its support.
And I needed all of that growth off.
First, I Cut the Clematis Near the Bottom
Before I started removing the upper growth, I clipped the vine near the bottom.
As I explained while recording the cleanup, I wanted to leave some stem above the soil for the plant going into winter storage.
Once the upper growth was cut free, the job became much simpler.
I didn't painstakingly unwind every individual clematis petiole from the mesh.
I pulled.
In the original video, I explain one of the features of the mesh while I'm doing it:
“It's sturdy enough that you can pull on it without the mesh coming down or tearing.”
Then I keep pulling until the old growth is gone.
That may look like a simple cleanup job, but the ability to do it was something we had considered when choosing the mesh for Scroll Trellis.
The Mesh Was Chosen With Plant Removal in Mind
When my husband, Larry, was selecting mesh for Scroll Trellis, he wasn't thinking only about whether it could hold a mature climbing plant.
He was also thinking about what a gardener would eventually do to it.
At one point, I was interested in trying a lighter plastic mesh, particularly because it was available in white.
Larry reviewed its specifications and vetoed it.
His objection wasn't the color. He didn't want the same mesh in black, either.
Based on its specifications, he didn't think it was robust enough for the way we expected gardeners to remove mature vines.
He wanted a climbing surface that could withstand something considerably less delicate than a clematis leaf petiole:
a gardener pulling a season's worth of old growth from it.
That's why what you see happening in the video isn't an accidental benefit of the trellis. The demands of cleanup were part of the material decision.
Easy for the Clematis to Grab. Strong Enough for the Gardener to Pull.
Those are two very different jobs for the same climbing surface.
During the growing season, clematis needs thin elements its leaf petioles can wrap around. The 1/2-inch mesh gives the plant many closely spaced strands to encounter as it grows.
At cleanup time, I need something different.
I need to be able to pull an intertwined mass of cut growth from the trellis without treating the mesh as though it's fragile.
So we were looking for both characteristics:
Easy for the clematis to grab.
Strong enough for the gardener to pull.
The first is about how the plant climbs.
The second is about what happens when the gardener has to maintain it.
Surface Mounting Makes a Difference, Too
There's something else worth watching in the cleanup video.
The trellis stays put.
Scroll Trellis is mounted to a solid surface rather than being a decorative trellis pushed into the soil.
That becomes particularly useful when I'm removing old growth.
Anyone who has tried to untangle a vine from a lightweight support knows what can happen: you pull the plant and the trellis comes toward you with it.
With this installation, I have a stationary support to work against. I can use both hands to remove the cut vine rather than trying to hold the trellis in place at the same time.
Once the vine is gone, the trellis stays mounted and ready to be used again.
One Thing I'd Do Differently: Make the Container Portable
There was another complication with this particular planting that had nothing to do with the trellis.
My window box was permanently mounted to the house.
Removing the clematis from the trellis didn't solve that problem.
I still couldn't pick up the container and move it into protected winter storage. I had to remove the clematis from the window box, put it into another pot and move that pot into my unheated garage.
That experience taught me something I'd consider when planning a similar container clematis today:
If your container-grown clematis may need winter protection, consider making the container portable from the beginning.
Container-grown perennials can be more vulnerable to winter cold because their roots don't have the insulation provided by the surrounding ground. Depending on your climate and the hardiness of the plant, protected winter storage may be appropriate.
A portable container doesn't necessarily eliminate the need to prune or remove growth from a fixed trellis. But it does give you more options without requiring you to transplant the root system at the same time.
A Clematis Trellis Has a Job After the Flowers Are Gone
It's easy to judge a trellis in summer.
Is the clematis climbing?
Does it have plenty of places to attach?
Can the support handle the mature vine?
And does it look good covered in flowers?
Those things matter.
But there's another part of growing climbing plants that's easy to overlook when we're choosing a support:
Eventually, the gardener has to maintain the plant.
Depending on the clematis and the situation, that may mean pruning, removing dead growth, retraining stems or, as happened with this plant, removing most of a season's growth from its support.
The trellis still has a job to do.
A good clematis support needs to work with the plant while it's growing.
And when the time comes, it should work with the gardener who's taking care of it.
It has to help the plant get on.
And sometimes, it has to help the gardener get the plant off.