Extended bloomtime plus hard-to-find colors -- no wonder Crystal Fountain™ is so highly prized! This exciting Clematis offers a brilliant 5-month display on vigorous, easy plants!

Each bloom features a frilly pompon sitting atop a wide daisy-like ray of petals. Expect them to reach up to 5 inches wide, and to appear by the dozen on very compact climbing plants. So beautiful, yet so garden-tough -- this is a Clematis to train up a trellis or thread through an open-habit shrub.

In most climates, the flowers will begin before spring is out, continuing right through summer and into fall. They are not shy about opening, and last a good while. And Crystal Fountain™ has substantially better resistance to powdery mildew than most other Clematis, making it a great choice for humid and rainy climates.

Crystal Fountain™ is a sport of the old favorite 'H. F. Young.' It is a member of the C. viticella family, a very cold-hardy European branch of the Clematis family that traditionally loves our American climate. This Clematis asks only for a vertical or horizontal support to climb, full sun on its aboveground growth and a nice cooling mulch over its roots. It appreciates adequate moisture, but once it is established in your garden, it can take a bit of drought. And it's easily compact enough for containers! Pruning Group 2. Zones 4-9.

The Big-Flowered Summer Bloomers

Masses of frilly star-shaped blooms; big white snowflakes that blanket the garden twice a season; true-blue color for 4 solid months. The big-flowered, double, and otherwise showy Clematis varieties are among the very best for the garden, and you can master the annual pruning technique in about 3 minutes. First, make sure you've already done the special first- and second-year pruning. Then just maintain your Clematis's beauty as follows:

Group 2 Clematis blooms on "old wood," which simply means stems that grew last season or earlier. (This season's new stems — the ones that grow from spring till the summer bloom season begins — won't flower until next year.) Therefore, you don't want to prune too radically. The rule of thumb is that in late winter or earliest spring, cut back each stem about 6 to 8 inches, to right above the point where it branches. At this branching point, you should see a pair of little bumps. These are buds, and you want to keep them. Find all the branching stems on the Clematis and trim to just above those buds. (You may have read in gardening manuals: "Trim to a pair of strong buds." That's what this process is — the two buds right above the place where each stem branches are the "pair of strong buds" you're looking for! They're easy to see on the slender Clematis stems.)

Once you know your Clematis's pruning number and get that first-year trim out of the way, keeping this woody climber looking its best and blooming like crazy is simple! A few minutes once a year will yield you armloads of flowers for many seasons, and you will continue to find new uses for Clematis, from hiding an unsightly fence to decorating your most formal garden art!

Shop Clematis

Time to Prune?

Group 1

Group 3

Get the Best Blooms from your Clematis

You’ll find Clematis pruning groups for your specific variety listed in the descriptions in our catalog and online. Follow the pruning guidelines below to get the best bloom show out of your Clematis.

Don't cripple your Clematis! Make sure that you are pruning your vine properly based on its blooming habit. Clematis can either bloom on old wood (Group I), new wood (Group 3), or both (Group 2), and you must be sure to prune accordingly, because improper pruning can set your bloom show back a year or more!

Note: In the illustration above, the dark stems are what you want to keep, while the light stems are what you want to prune away.

Group I:

(Bloom in early spring from buds set the previous season on old wood; doesn’t die back in winter)

Prune only when needed, after bloom in spring.

Clematis should only be pruned sparingly. They tend to bloom earlier, in the spring. After their bloom show is over you can give them a light pruning. All you want to do is clear out dead wood and keep the stems tidy.

Since this group blooms only on old wood, cutting too low or too early in the season could cost you flowers! Examples of a Group I Clematis are shown here.

Group II:

(Usually includes rebloomers that produce flowers on old wood in late spring/early summer and often bloom again on new wood in late summer or fall)

In March, remove dead wood and cut the remaining stems 6 to 8 inches to a pair of strong buds.

Clematis should be given a moderate trim. Since they bloom on old and new wood alike, you want to trim enough to encourage new growth, but without losing any promising buds. Remove dead wood and cut back the remaininsg tems just 6 to 8 inches.

Do this trim in March, before the blooming has begun. This group tends to bloom in the middle of the season, setting flowers on old wood in late spring/early summer and then reblooming on the new wood through late summer or even early fall. This group is a bit more forgiving—even if you prune a bit too harshly, you will still get to enjoy the late-season rebloom! An example of a Group II Clematis is Vancouver Fragrant Star.

Group III:

(Bloom on new wood in the summer and fall; dies to the ground over winter)

Each year in March, prune all stems back to a strong set of buds 12 inches from the ground.

Clematis are the easiest to prune, since you basically cut the whole thing down! This group goes dormant in the winter, letting the stems die off, and then they grow anew each spring. This means that each year in March you should prune back all the stems to just about 12 inches off the ground to make way for the new growth.

This group will come back strong and will bloom on the new wood each year. Since they have to re-grow their mature size each summer, they tend to be the last to flower, opening in late summer or fall. Examples of a Group I Clematis are shown here.

For more information on Clematis care and pruning, contact us directly by calling our public relations department at 1-864-941-4521.

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