Growing Vines | Training/Pruning Vines | Further Reading
Most vines will quickly revert to a tangled mass of foliage on the
ground if they are not given proper support and a reasonable amount of
care and maintenance. The best type of support for vines gives the required
structural strength and stability and is neat in appearance.
Often, when plants are purchased from the nursery they are already trained on a stake driven into the container. This was done by the grower to keep the vine off the ground and from becoming a tangled mass of foliage. Remove the stake and any twist ties at planting. Historically, vines were severely pruned at planting. This is not necessary for container-grown plants. Remove dead or damaged branches and shape the plant as needed. Long shoots with sparse foliage should be headed back to promote new, low-growing foliage.
New vines often need guidance in reaching the intended support. Use a short piece of string, netting, or stake to provide guidance to the lower portions of the support (trellis, fence). Some vines tend to grow upright with a mass of foliage at the top and little at their base. To prevent this problem train the vine horizontally at first forcing the upward growth to develop from lateral shoots. Moderate pruning in the first few years will encourage low branching.
The main reasons to prune established vines include: limiting vigorous growth, clearing around windows and doors, enhancing flower production, thinning branches, and removing dead or damaged wood. The best time to prune depends on when the vine flowers. Spring-flowering vines are usually pruned after they finish flowering, while most other vines are pruned during the dormant season. Twining vines initiate most of their growth from the upper buds; the lower portions of the vine may become leafless and severe pruning may be needed to promote low-growing foliage. A mass of new shoots may appear after severe pruning; select the strongest shoots and remove the rest. Vines that produce long, vigorous shoots, such as Carolina jasmine, growing on a chain-link fence, will need shearing and training several times a year to keep it in bounds.
Wisteria - can become a tangled mass of branches that produce few flowers. To guarantee profuse flowering requires a special pruning schedule. Never prune heavily during the dormant season. Late summer and early fall pruning is important for flower bud development. Reduce the spur-bearing shoot length by one-half or greater, leaving about six nodes. The results will be short, flowering spurs where next year's flowers will be borne. Excessively, vigorous shoots can be removed entirely or trained to fill voids. Follow-up pruning to further shorten spur growth can be done in late winter or early spring. Cut back to about three plump buds per spur.
Clematis - Newly transplanted clematis vines should be pruned to the lowest pair of strong buds to promote a thicker more vigorous plant. Subsequent pruning is based on when a particular species flowers. Those that flower on current season's wood (Clematis x jackmanii, C. paniculata, C. tanguitaica, C. orientalis, and C. viticulla) should be severely pruned in late winter to early spring to promote new growth. Large-flowering hybrid cultivars in this group include: Gravetye Beauty, Etoile Rose, Ernest Markham, Hagley Hybrid, and Pere d'Azur.
Clematis that flower on one-year-old
wood (Clematis florida, C. patens, C.
montana, C. chrysocoma, and C. apina) should be
pruned to develop a framework. Annual pruning consists of cutting away
all flowering wood to within a few inches of the main framework immediately
after flowering. After five or more years some clematis vines may become
too tall or leggy and severe pruning may be required to rejuvenate the
plant regardless of species. A third group of clematis includes most of
the popular, large-flowering cultivars such as Nelly
Moser, Henry, Duchess of Edinburgh, and William Kennett. These clematis
flower in the spring from one-year-old wood, but also produce side shoots
that produce further displays of medium-size flowers during late summer.
The growth habit makes this group difficult to prune. They may be left
unpruned or lightly pruned. When they become straggly or out-of-control,
severely prune in late winter to early spring (spring flowers will be
eliminated, late summer flowers should develop). An alternative is to
severely prune one-forth to one-third of the oldest shoots back to within
a foot of the ground each year for several years. This system works well
for vines grown on walls and fences where shoots can be separated but
poorly for vines grown on mailboxes.
Roses - New canes trained in a somewhat horizontal position generally
flower more heavily than those allowed to grow in a vertical position.
Roses are pruned accord to which group they belong: climbing or ramblers.
Climbing roses flower on current season's growth. This group of roses
is not particularly vigorous and little pruning is normally required.
Examples of climbing roses include roses derived from hybrid tea cultivars,
such as climbing Peace or climbing Crimson Glory, as well as the following
cultivars: Iceberg, Meg, Handel, and Marigold. Only dead or weak wood
and bloomed-out flower stems should be removed back to a vigorous bud.
In the winter, shorten flowering laterals to three or four buds. After
several years some of the old canes may be removed to the base to produce
new vigorous canes. Rosa banksiae and Rosa 'Mermaid' are
pruned like climbing roses, except do not prune the flowering laterals
in winter.
Rambling roses are vigorous
growers that flower only once in the spring. They can be divided into
sub-groups --- pruning varies with each group. Ramblers derived from Rosa
wichuraiana flower on one-year-old wood. After flowering, cut the
old canes to the ground and leave the new vigorous shoots to flower the
following year. Another group of ramblers flowers on new canes but not
those that primarily arise from the base; new flowers develop on new growth
mid-way up on old canes. Remove some of the old flowering canes where
new vigorous shoots have started growing.
Prepared by: Erv Evans, Consumer Horticulturist, NC State University
© 2000 NC State University - All Rights Reserved