ASK DIARMUID

QI have a winter-flowering clematis called Winter Beauty. It has beautiful white/creamy bell-shaped flowers in November/December. It has currently got very large through the summer, so is it OK to cut it back and, if so, how should I go about it?

Carol

AThat’s a gorgeous variety of clematis, providing very welcome flowers so deep into the winter.

However, it’s already producing flowering shoots for this coming November, so if you prune now you will be losing a lot of flowers.

The best time to prune is in mid to late spring when flowering has finished and the danger of frost is passed.

That said, if you need to get it under control, you can still prune now, trimming back overly long shoots to a healthy pair of buds – but you will miss out on some of those lovely blossoms.