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Clematis problem - it's not blooming


My name is Lucy and I live in north Ontario, close to Sault-Saint Marie.  It has been 3 years now that my clematis hasn't bloomed.  The leaves are beautiful but no blooms.    It is in full sun and protected of wind by the garage.  I'm really disappointed because this is one of my favourite vine.  I should of had beautiful purple flowers by now but it let me down again this year.  What can I do to get blooms for next year?

Doug says



OK - you don't say what kind of clematis you have.   And this is important in this case because you live in a very cold climate.

You see - clematis bloom in one of two ways. They either bloom on old wood (the buds are produced in one year and open/flower the next_  --or-- they bloom on new wood (bloom in the same year as the new growth)

If your clematis is one that blooms on old wood - then it will likely never bloom because those buds are getting winter killed.

If your clematis is one that blooms on new growth, then we have a growing problem.

One of the things I sometimes see is enthusiastic gardeners feeding a plant too much nitrogen.  This produces tons of leaves but no flowers.    So if you're giving your plant anything more than a shovel of compost in the spring, then you might be overfeeding.  Certainly if you're using a liquid plant food several times a season, you may be overfeeding (depending on the food and concentration you use)

Or, I've sometimes seen vines next to lawns get lawn food (very high nitrogen) and this produces massive growth at the expense of flower buds as well.

So - likely a winter burn issue or a feeding issue.




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