I can commiserate on the lack of rainfall Sandy. Here in NC the grass looks like it normally does in August and is brown and crunchy. It sounds as if your mom's clematis has never been cut back at all which is why the plant has a single long woody stem. Is this a correct assessment?

If the plant has one woody stem, then you have a decision to make. I know of several people who have tried to rejuvenate an older clematis which had never been pruned back and had woody stems by cutting the plant back severely and it killed the plant. If the plant has several woody stems, I would cut 1/2 back now, mulch and fertilize the clematis well, and keep it watered. That should stimulate some new growth. If so, then next year, trim the other woody stems back and trim the new growth as is typical for a type III clematis.

If however, you only have one woody stem then you truly have a decision to make. Are you willing to take the chance to cut it back and risk loosing it or can you live with the way it looks and leave it alone? Another option for one stem is to mound more soil up around the crown (don't know if it was planted deep when it was originally planted as it should have been) and mulch it well. Keep it fertilized and watered well the rest of the summer and see if it responds by throwing out new stems from the base.

One other option for a single woody stem is if at all possible is to get the stem to the ground, nick the stem slightly and bury the nicked portion in the ground. Keep the area moist and the plant may root at the leaf node you buried and send up new shoots.

Good luck regardless of what you decide to do.

Yes I think that would be the correct assessment of moms Clematis. I'll check it out this evening when I go over to feed the cats and water her basket flowers.
Thanks NCvilledudes I think your probably right, I have a big decision to make i'm sure. Mom said she has ever pruned the Jackmanii back, and i would bet she doesn't water it but a couple times a growing season either. By her not watering it and it still living it might have a deep root system that might work to my advantage, ummmmm makes me think I might have a shot at rejuvenating old Jackmanii after all. I'll let you know what i find out this evening. Think I'll start with a 5gal bucket with a slow leak drink of water before I do anything to him. Sandy

Sandy, would you keep us posted throughout the summer? I am really interesting in the outcome.

I can tell you my experience with a jackmanii but it might not work for you so I won't recommend it. I had one with a woody stem that had not been pruned for several years and cut it way back in March. There were no viable buds to grow. It did regrow from the roots after 2 months, when I had thought it was dead, and even grew up and bloomed a lot in the fall. I wouldn't want to tell you to do that and have it die, as suggested above, though. However it worked for me.

IF it was MY Clematis, I would cut it back almost to the ground and hope for sprouts from the roots.

IF I was taking care of my mother's yard while she was away, I'm not sure I'd do that!

I, personally, have no more patience or tolerance for scraggly Clems. I lost my temper last year and whacked a ton of them and the results were great. I'm not going to be afraid to whack again. They aren't that expensive to replace.

Buyorsell - Did you lose any at all when you whacked them back?

Thanks for the respones. Janet I'll make post as i procede and let ya'll know how it goes with old Jack. I did check more closely yesterday evening and I'll take pictures this evening and post the pictures tomorrow of what the stem system looks like now. I pulled the weeds from around the base and there is two woody stems that are alive and one thats dead. The dead one is about 2 inches long and really appears there's no life in it what so ever. The two live stems are very woody and are long and both have blooms on them now. No mulch and the ground is very hard. I drilled a couple of small hole's in a 5 gal bucket and left it to drip at the base of the plant. The woody stem is about the size of my pointer finger. Hemnancy and buyorsell yes if it was my Clematis I would cut it all the way back and hope for the best, while pampering it along. I know mom is a bit semimetal when it comes to her plants because someone gave her this plant. But she didn't know about the different types of Clematis and how to care for them. I think she just thought put it in the ground and it would grow. I think i'll also plant her another Jack on the other end of the small fence she has her jack on now since I have an extra Jack i'm growning out in a 2 gal pot that i potted up last summer. I had bought a jackmanii from Lowes 2 years ago that i planted in a large pot, I really don't think its a jackmanii tho. I think it was miss labled and it has already outgrown its pot and its trellis. I have another jackmanii I planted out by a trellis at my house and its only about a foot tall right now. I also have a Romona still in a pot that going on two years that really needs a home. In the pot it has close to 8 blooms on it right now. I just really wanted to try and make her old jackmanii better for her. I'll post pictures tomorrow (Thursday). Sandy

Ophelia, No, I did not lose any when I whacked them back. All of them were not whacked to bare woody stems though some had green buds. They were all Types I and II and years ago when I planted them, I took "no prune" and "light prune" to heart. I was wrong. I should have hard pruned the first few years to get them off to a good start but I wanted them to grow tall to block the neighbor's view into my hot tub. Well, they did grow tall but they barely bloomed and they had 6 to 8 feet of bare stems too. I selectively cut some back and left some as I don't like the neighbor's teenage son staring at me. He sits in his upstairs window and smokes and I feel creepy. I'm sure he really doesn't give a rip about me but I still want his view blocked!

Sandy, You could whack one of the stems and leave the other one. Or, you could pinch the new growth on both stems. Either way it most likely could use fertilizer.

You could plant another Clematis to cover up the 8' bare stems.

Buyorsell, Thanks. I asked because I'm wondering how likely it is to actually kill a clematis by cutting it back after years of neglect. Based on my own experiences and those of others here, I'm starting to think it's hard to do, although it apparently does happen sometimes. I wonder what the variable is.
And by the way, it IS creepy about the neighbor's teenager. I wouldn't like that either, even though you're probably right that what he cares about is keeping the smoke out of the house. One good thing about teens, though, is they grow up and move out.

I am sure it is possible to kill them. I am just sick of non performers. I've always had no trouble shovel pruning plants that don't perform except I put up with scraggly Clematis for far too long. What really ticks me off is when the two Atragenes bloomed like crazy this spring, after the hard pruning, the colors were boring! I babied 'Willy' and 'Rosy O'Grady' for years and now realize I don't like them. They are pale washed out pink. There are so many with richer colors available now. I got these free and planted them years ago.