7 Step Clematis Montana Pruning Method with Niwaki Okatsune Shears After Flowering

Step one: use the short window after flowering

Clematis montana flowers on wood produced during the previous summer. The buds that open in May sit on stems extended the year before, so late pruning removes the material that would have carried the next display. Once the last petals have dropped, the useful window lasts for roughly six weeks. On most temperate sites that puts the work in late June through July.

Leaving the job until August changes the result. By then the plant has already begun laying down the growth that will flower next spring, and a hard cut at that point strips away part of the following season’s show. The plant may still grow, but the timing has shifted from tidying after bloom to cutting into next year’s flower wood.

The Niwaki Okatsune 217 shears are useful at this stage because their long handles put the blade deep into a crowded canopy while your hands stay outside the tangle. The 217 has a forged Izumo Yasugi steel blade, hollow-ground on one face, and its published cutting capacity is around 18mm of green stem. Older montana stems, especially those over three or four years old, can exceed that capacity, so thicker material needs to be identified before the cutting starts.

Step two: read the framework before cutting

Stand back first. A mature montana usually has three to five main leaders, the thick stems that carry most of the plant. Around them sits a mix of new flexible growth, older flowering wood, dead strands, and stems that have wandered behind the main framework.

The habit of the plant explains many of the problems seen on old wall-trained specimens. New growth piles over old growth year after year until the lower 1.5 metres of wall is bare and the flowers sit high up near the gutter. That pattern is especially common on plants that have gone a decade without pruning.

Trace the leaders from the base upward with your hand before reaching for the shears. Where one leader divides into two similar stems, treat the fork as a choice point. Keeping every forked stem gives the plant more routes to thicken, and within a couple of seasons the centre can close over again.

The aim is a clear framework with enough retained stems to clothe the wall without packing the whole space with wood. On a south-facing wall, congestion builds quickly because warmth reflected from brick or render encourages rapid extension. If you cannot follow a leader from the base to its upper growth, the plant is too tangled to cut accurately.

Work slowly through this reading stage. The later cuts depend on knowing which stems form the plant’s permanent structure and which are only loose growth laid over the top. Once the framework is visible, the rest of the job becomes removal, shortening, and tying-in.

Step three: remove dead and rubbing stems

Deadwood on montana is easy to recognise once you test it. It is brittle, pale brown inside when nicked, and snaps instead of bending. Cut it out to a living junction, leaving as little dead stub as possible.

After that, look for crossing stems. Any stem rubbing against a neighbour can open a wound, and that friction point gives stem rot a place to enter. On a wall-trained plant, dead and crossing material can account for a third of the total volume removed.

The Okatsune blade holds its edge through this work because the steel is hardened to roughly 60 HRC, harder than most European bypass secateurs. It slices cleanly through brittle deadwood when kept sharp. Wipe sap from the blade with a cloth as it builds up; dried sap drags through a cut and can leave a ragged stub. On montana, dieback can travel several centimetres down a stem before it stops.

Step four: shorten the canopy with restraint

A montana that flowered well usually needs restraint after flowering. Take the longest current-season shoots back to a strong pair of buds, reducing perhaps a third of the plant’s total length across the canopy. Make the cut about 5mm above an outward-facing bud pair, with the angle set so water runs away from the bud.

In July warmth, fresh growth should push from those buds within two to three weeks. That new growth is valuable because it carries the following May’s flowers. Keeping enough young wood after pruning is the difference between a neat plant and a plant that has been tidied out of bloom.

Cutting harder than a third brings two possible results. A montana cut back into thick old wood may stay bare there, since the species is reluctant to regenerate from bare three-year-old stems. A light annual reduction keeps the plant in flower every season and avoids forcing a renovation cut.

Renovation by half or more belongs to plants that have already failed as flowering wall plants. It costs a year of bloom either way. For a plant that still flowers well, the after-flowering prune should take weight off the canopy, admit light, and keep young flowering wood where it can be trained.

Step five: train retained stems back to the wall

Once cutting has opened the plant, tie the retained leaders back to their support. On a south-facing aspect, reflected heat can push new growth fast, and loose stems whip in wind and snap at the base. Horizontal wires spaced 30cm apart give the stems a regular structure to sit against.

Spread the leaders into a fan so each length receives light. Soft jute twine tied in a figure-eight gives the stem room to flex without girdling. The tie should hold the stem to the wire without cutting into the bark as the shoot thickens.

Fan training low on the wall helps with the bare-base problem. Bend a couple of the more pliable retained stems down toward horizontal and tie them there. A stem held near horizontal breaks into side shoots along its length, and those side shoots can clothe the lower wall the following spring.

This correction is slow. It shows properly over two seasons, because the plant must first break into side growth and then carry flower buds on the new wood it makes. The 30cm wire spacing matters here. Closer spacing encourages layers of foliage to sit on top of one another, and shaded stems behind the front layer weaken.

Step six: clear the prunings

Montana prunings root readily where they touch damp soil. Cut material left at the base can also reseed the bed and hold slugs close to the new growth.

Rake out the debris before tying work is finished. A clear base also makes it easier to see which stems are alive near ground level.

Step seven: clean the Okatsune shears before storing them

Sap dries overnight to a hard varnish on the Okatsune blade. That residue traps moisture against the steel, which is where rust starts on high-carbon Yasugi steel. Wipe the blade with a rag after use, then add a smear of camellia oil, the traditional Niwaki recommendation, or another light machine oil.

The 217 comes apart at a single bolt for a deeper clean once a season. That is enough access for removing trapped sap and grit from the joint. Put the shears back together with the blades moving freely and no wobble at the hinge.

The orange-and-white handle colour on Okatsune tools makes the shears easy to spot against soil and leaf litter when they are set down during tying-in. A montana prune often involves putting the tool aside repeatedly while a stem is bent, tied, or traced back through the canopy. A pair lost in a compost heap can rust solid within a fortnight in summer humidity.

Sharpening is done on the bevelled face only with a 1000-grit waterstone. Hold the original hollow grind flat to the stone and avoid grinding the flat back face. Over-sharpening the wrong side changes how the blades meet and leaves the tool less clean in the cut.

A worked example: an old wall plant

Take a montana planted in 2015 against a 4m wide south-facing wall, never pruned, with flowers held in a dense band between 2m and 3m and bare stems below. The framework search finds six leaders, more than the space can carry cleanly. Two of those leaders cross and rub near the base, so they are removed outright, opening the centre immediately.

With the rubbing leaders gone, the remaining framework can be shortened without stripping the plant. The current-season growth is taken back by about a third across the canopy, cutting to strong bud pairs where the stems are still young enough to respond. That leaves flowering wood for next May while taking weight off the top of the plant.

The bare-base correction then uses two pliable retained stems. They are bent down toward horizontal and tied at the 60cm wire, where they should break into side shoots that fill the empty lower wall over 2026 and 2027. The brittle deadwood from a plant of this size can fill most of a garden trug before the green shortening cuts even begin.

The awkward case is the fully bare base with no pliable stems left to bend down. The open question on that old wall is whether enough living, flexible wood remains close to the base to make lower flowers return.