Time to be pruning your clematis

A sunny day in Shropshire, and the snowdrops are still giving of their best, despite disappearing under falls of real snow several times since they came into flower. The fault of a sunny 2nd February, perhaps. Sunshine at Candlemas, or Groundhog Day as they call it in other parts of the world, is supposed to signify a prolonged winter to follow, and that certainly seems to be the case this year.
Despite the cold weather, however, circumstances obliged me to prune my Clematis 'Etoile Violette' a little earlier than usual.
It belongs to the viticella group, a European species introduced to England during the sixteenth century and, along with the jackmanni type of clematis, and any late-flowering, large-flowering cultivars, which flower on new stems every year, is best served by cutting all the old top growth back to a point just above the previous season's stems, around 75cm above the ground, in late February or March.
Clematis fall within three groups as far as pruning is concerned. The mountain clematis such as the alpinas from the mountains of Europe, the macropetalas from the mountains of China, and the montanas from the Himalayas, produce their flowers directly from their old stems and, if pruned at all, it is only to remove dead and weak stems immediately after flowering. Large flowering early clematis such as 'Nelly Moser' (pictured below) or 'Dr Ruppel', or mid-season large flowerers such as 'Maureen', produce their flowers on the old, or previous season's stems, and should be pruned by removing any dead and weak stems, and shortening the rest back to about 15-25cm from mid-February to late March.
In the garden, look out for the pretty pink lantern-like flowers of Clematis macropetala 'Markham's Pink'. They appear in April, and are followed by attractive seed heads.