Very simply put, there are three basic groups for pruning purposes:
- Group 1: Those who flower on growth made the previous year (old wood), generally, in winter and spring. These don't require pruning unless they are getting out of bounds - and, of course, to remove deadwood. If you decide to prune, do it immediately after flowering so they can produce new shoots for flowers the next spring. If, as is often the case, you don't decide until fall that your vine has gotten totally out of hand, giving it a major haircut to clear out the tangles of dead growth and old birds' nests then will not harm it, it will, however, substantially reduce flowering the next year. This is one group that really need to be tended to at the right time of year.
Included are: C. armandii, C. macropetala and all its relatives, C. Alpina, C. montana, C. chrysocoma, C. spooneri and C. vedrariensis.
- Group 2: Early summer flowering plants who flower on the extremities of young growth made in the current season; shoots that can be anything from three to twelve feet (1 - 4m) long. Reduce the previous season's growth to within a pair of buds from the base of that growth. Over time, this will produce an increasingly large stump about a foot or so ( 30.48 -/- cm) high. Late winter is the time to do this task.
Included in this group are: C. flammula, C. viticella, C. campaniflora, C. tangutica, C. orientalis, 'Jackmanii,' 'Victoria', 'Perle d'Azur', 'Comtesse de Bouchard', 'Lady Betty Balfour', and 'Mme Baron-Veillard'.
- Group 3: This is the only really tricky group in that they flower on short laterals made from the previous season's wood. The members of this group are all the largest flowering hybrids who start flowering in late spring or early summer. Even if you are careful to remove dead shoots, you will find a tangle when you approach this task. Follow each shoot until you find a pair of nice fat buds and cut just above them. Wait until buds begin to swell (February or March) so you can see what is live wood, but don't wait so long that the new buds are damaged by the pruning operation. If you don't prune these back, they will flower, but the flowers will not be displayed well as they will end up squashed in the middle of the tangle of live and dead vine.
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