Hi Damn, I'm emailing you! would love some seeds, take a look at my list! Maryann

The typical pruning rules for type II clematis are that they are not pruned back each year and when they are pruned back, it is to remove deadwood and to contain the size of the plant. That being said, clematis of all pruning types benefit from being treated as type III clematis (ie cut back to within several inches of the ground) the first and second years in the ground. This helps the plant get its root system established and causes dormant buds to break on the crown, resulting in more vines coming up out of the ground. That being said, I personally treat my type IIs as type III each and every year. Sometimes they are cut back in the winter when I cut back my type IIIs and other times I wait until midsummer when the vines tend to get brown and crunchy regardless of how much water I give them over the course of the summer. When I trim in midsummer, I typically cut the plants back by half, fertilize them with a slow release fertilizer, and keep them watered. They reward me with another big flush of blooms in the early fall. Another good reason to treat your type IIs as IIIs is that as the type IIs mature, the lower vines tend to get woody, you get less or no leaf growth on them, and you end up with a clematis with what is referred to as 'naked legs.' Treating them as type IIs, either yearly or in alternating years, helps to prevent this condition. Consider the pruning rules for all classes of clematis as basic rules that are not written in stone, but just general guidelines. Here is a picture of Proteus and Piilu that were cut back to within several inches of the ground this past winter and they are both back up to over 5 feet tall and still blooming like mad in my garden. People in colder zones may not be able to get by with treating type IIs as type IIIs since the type IIs bloom on older wood and in the colder zones, the vines may not have enough time to mature to produce the buds for flower production. Those of us in most parts of NC don't have to worry with this. Experimentation with your pruning of any type of clematis in your own garden will let you know what you can get away with and what you can't. The only downside to treating type IIs as type IIIs that I can think of is that some of the double flowering type IIs require both old wood and a winter chill to produce the double flowers. Closeup of double blooms on Proteus. Closer up view of Piilu.

I have some type 2 clematis that do well, but others that struggle in my garden. I have a HF Young (the blue one I added to the 'Sick of Winter' thread) which has thrived. It dies back to the snow line most years and I trim off dead stuff when it starts sprouting, so in effect it gets type 3 pruning. I have a Guernsey Cream (white) that does well in half shade and blooms beautifully every year even though due to its location growing through the middle of a lilac it never gets pruned at all. So I guess I'd recommend either one of them. I have had two Niobe, one of which died, and the other of which has always struggled with only a few stems each year and sometimes wilt. It has gotten cut back like a 3 for several years, but doesn't seem any happier cut hard or not. I'm planning to dig it up and put it somewhere less obvious this year and I don't know if it will die, continue to struggle or decide that it just didn't like its current location and begin to thrive . So I guess that I'd suggest that you choose your varieties carefully based on recommendations of plants that seem to do well for many folks. This post was edited by nhbabs on Fri, Aug 23, 13 at 19:54

Hi you could prune half of the plant down low and see if it will flower off of the new stems.