Montana clematis

[elderly]

I have a montana clematis which looks absolutly dead, it is only a year or so old. Should I prune it right down and hope it comes to life or is it stll alive and I am being too eager?

[Robinia]

Leave it and see what happens this year - it's not the right time to prune a montana anyway. If it's still alive & you need to prune it do it after flowering.

[elderly]

Thank you very much Robinia

[WendyS]

More than once I've been tempted to dig out a plant which looks totally dead, only to find that it suddenly develops a new life in late spring. You can possibly test it by pruning one of the shoots and seeing whether it is green & moist inside but this isn't always a guarantee. I'd been inclined to wait a couple of months before taking any action.

[andyjevs]

A good test to see if a plant's still alive is, with your thumb nail, gently scrape a small slither of bark away. Live plants are usually green or have a greenish tinge just under the bark.

Dead plants will also be fairly brittle and might snap easy.

These aren't foolproof but are usually a good indication. Leave your clematis until May. You should've started to see signs of growth by then.

[logman]

Clematis montana is one of the early flowering varieties and a very vigourous one too.

They may appear to look dead during its dormant period, as it is not an evergreen species and its easy to be fooled into thinking its dead.

Hopefully soon around april it may start showing signs of life and reward you with masses of pink or white flowers.

After flowering is over, This is the correct time to prune it. You can normaly prune montana back quite hard back but as its only still a young un, I'd go easy on it in its first year until it gets established, so really just prune to give it a tidy up this year.

Hope you will find your plant still alive and kicking. Good Luck.

[elderly]

A big thank you to everyone who posted an answer for me. They are all og great help

[pugwash52]

elderly, I've just had a walk round the "estate" so I had a look at my montana, also planted last year.It still looks quite lifeless, but the shoots still bend like a healthy plant, so I reckon as soon as we have a couple of days of sunshine we shall see the new shoots coming.

[elderly]

Thanks all of you,
PUGWASH. Good luck with yours, hope it bursts into life soon. we should let each other know if they do!!

[katerich48]

I have never had any success with Clematis's? There is something called Clematis wilt apparently, (according to Alan Titchmarsh) and there is no real reason for it..

[pugwash52]

elderly, just checked again and I can see the dark leaf shoots are just showing. It's looking healthier already. Suprising what a couple of sunny days can do. We live in Wiltshire, so it's reasonably mild here. Hope you are having the same luck.

[elderly]

pugwash. i'm pleased for you. there are still no signs of anything with mine. the weather here in kent is cold and very windy.