Prune every 6 wks. or so if you want to keep it more in bounds. Read this

??? I'm asking, after it's grown, winter comes and goes, spring comes, and it's time to clean up the previous year's growth on the trellis/support.

Hee, I suspect it's a reference to the invasive nature. Here, we have major infestation in forested areas.

Oh sorry, I thought maybe you were trying to avoid worrying about having it climb so high....prevention, you know and all that, would be pruning. But once it's clumb all over, you just have to trim it back and clean up after the trimming. Like I do my apple tree: every couple of years, it gets pruned. And every one of those cut off branches have to be picked up and moved to the burn pile or the back of beyond somewhere where it will be a pile for the bunnies and birds to hide in and then finally break down in time.

It won't grow up the chimney without help :-) Clematis are true viners and need something small/narrow that they can wind around to help support themselves, so unless you have netting or a trellis in place, you don't need to worry about it climbing higher than you can reach.

I grew SAC for years in my old garden but cut it back each winter to a manageable size.......just to the top of an old iron screen that was its major support. During the growing season it would expand exponentially, consuming a lot of fence, a large deciduous shrub and climbing into a nearby apple tree. Once cut back, it was quite simple to remove the excess vinage.

btw, the vine is incorrectly identified as Clematis paniculata in the above link. SAC is correctly Clematis terniflora. C. paniculata is a very tender (not winter hardy) species that is seldom seen outside of its native NZ - C. terniflora is Asian in origin. I have a tendency to be very skeptical of information provided by any website that cannot correctly identify the plant it is referring to...........

Help, right! So how do you clean out the help (trellis)? Especially since it grows so tall? I don't see me climbing 15+ feet up it every season.

If I can pull it down easily from up inside a 25' tall apple tree, you should also be able to easily pull down from a 15' tall trellis.

This is really not a very difficult task :-)

Awesome! Thank you gardengal. Sounds like I should go forward

GG, that's true, clematis seem to be imminently fragile, so ripping down shouldn't be much problem at all. Good point.

I admit to simply grabbing and ripping - a vastly enjoyable chore. Despite the vast swathes of crinkly leafage, aging clematis gives up its grip quite easily - mine is usually entangled in roses, as well as various structural supports...and as these supports have generally been bodged up at zero expense by myself, they are not especially sturdy, yet vigorous clem yanking causes not a sniff of damage. Choose a day when you feel quite energised and preferably furious at some politico or other...and tug away.