This question was asked by
- Mary J

I'm in the process of putting together an order for a pergola which already has two climbing roses recently planted - The Pilgrim and scarlet Cascade. I wanted to plant viticella (something Corning?) with the scarlet rose, as I thought the nodding heads and the colour would blend prettily, but worry about the pruning as I am elderly and couldn't reach up and yank ! any suggestions would be much appreciated. Iam looking to plant up to four, including Armandii snowdrift, hopefully. Advice would be much appreciated - I really want you to say that I don't really need to prune to viticella … but I worry it may get out of hand.

Hi Mary, Viticella types only flower on new growth, so if you didn't prune them the flowers would get higher and higher ( or in your case further over the pergola each year) thus making the bottom all bare stems and no flowers.

When it comes round to pruning early march, the clematis don't have any leaves on them (they are just 'dead sticks' in effect) so they don't take much pulling out after cutting them really.

I suppose it would not be the end of the world if you just cut them and then left all the old stems exactly where they are - as the fresh growth would just about cover them anyway.

I hope this helps, and the one you speak of is called 'betty corning' please click the link below

Betty Corning

Chris and Suzy