clematis

[Coffee]

Is there any thing I can do to keep the clematis in bloom during the summer? It blooms great late spring then seems to fall back mid summer(eastern PA) Patty

[Tracey]

Probably not. Or, maybe more accurately, if you *do* find a way to keep it in bloom all summer long (at least with a lot of blooms, mine seemed to have occasional blooms on them most of the summer), you'll be risking weakening the plant, maybe to the point where it will die over the winter and/or risking

*next* year's blooms.

I'm not an expert and will defer to any dissenting opinions, but, from what I've read on clematises, they are generally 'certain parts of the year' only bloomers. Some bloom in the late spring/early summer and spend the rest of the summer putting out new growth for next year's blooms. Some bloom in the late summer, using the new growth from spring to their bloomtime to put out their blooms. There's another period or two where certain clematises will bloom, IIRC, but it seems to me that I haven't read of clematises that bloom the entire growing season.

Tracey

[Suja]

The type of clematis you have, and the group that it falls into basically determines when it blooms. It is possible to use pruning methods to shift the bloom periods. Although this doesn't directly address your question, you can find more information about various groups of clematis here:

[Coffee]