Thank you so much for your indepth answer. I'm excited to see them flower and I may not have to wait too long!

NHBabs,

Great link! I just purchased a Niobe & am also finding it's prune group conflicting on different sources! I have a Jackmanii that I "inherited" when I bought my house several years ago, so Niobe is the first clem I actually plant.

Thanks for posting, MKPearse!

Best,

Nicole

'Niobe' is group 2. Shouldn't be any confusion with that :-)

Well, there IS confusion for myself since some sites say group 2 & others recommend group 3, as well as the tag attached to it said 3. Yet another website said that it straddles group 2 & 3, so it CAN be confusing for a clematis newbie like myself. ;)

BUT, since I'm in a colder zone (4b/5), it would make sense for me to prune it as a 2, as well as it blooms on old & new wood, which I read earlier today & answered my question. :D

As a practical matter for me, several of my type 2's end up pruned as 3's by mom nature (die back to the snow line or even below if we have really cold weather before there's good snow cover) so the distinction isn't important for me on those plants. Niobe is one of those that I've never any of the vine survive the winter.

Sorry - I didn't mean that comment to be flippant, only that all the sources I consider as being authoritative on clematis list Niobe as a group 2. And I wouldn't put a lot of weight on information provided by plant tags - they are notoriously misleading and often inaccurate. FWIW, the vast majority of the large flowered hybrids - like Niobe, Nelly Moser, Henryi and many other popular selections - will be pruning group 2 vines.

It is important to remember that clematis pruning instructions are only guidelines - you can choose to follow them or not. It's not going to make a huge difference to the plant, except to possibly delay or limit flowering if you prune harder than suggested, or if you opt not to prune at all. The one suggestion I would make is that you prune hard regardless of pruning group for at least the first season. This helps the clematis to develop a big healthy root system and reduces the chances of wilt going forward.

In my old garden, I had a vast collection of clematis (about 60) from all three pruning groups and it was just necessary because of time constraints to approach pruning as efficiently as possible. So I narrowed down the pruning groups to 2 - prune or not prune! Anything that bloomed exclusively on old growth (very early bloomers, mostly species clems) were not pruned unless growth became unruly. Otherwise, everything else was pruned back hard, like a group 3 (except for a tangutica growing in a 25' apple tree which was unreachable and left unpruned). All flourished and bloomed, although any group 2's may have been slightly delayed with their bloom cycle with this practice.

The point is these vines are adaptable and flexible and it is not necessary to be absolutely precise in your pruning methods :-)

Good to know what to expect from Niobe in our zones, NHBabs. And lots of great info, gardengal48 - thank you much!

Not only am I a newbie to clems, but flowers & growing things in general, ha! In the past my younger self had so-so experiences with annuals - because of my own neglect & simply not wanting to put the time into it. I'm now a stay at home mom & care about things other than myself (haha!), I've found great pleasure in trying my hand at growing things & the satisfaction it get from it. I'm learning, slowly, and I'm just glad there's forums like this where inexperienced wannabe gardeners like me can go to get advice & learn. :)

Nicole, since you are a newbie - don't get discouraged from growing clematis if Niobe doesn't do well for you. It is the least enthusiastic grower of all the clematis that I grow. If you decide you want to add some, there are lists of good choices for newbies, or you can ask here what does well for folks in cold zones.