Pest battle with Clematis — and how I won

I had a serious problem with pruning at the wrong time removing next season's flower buds on my Clematis earlier this year. Caught it late and had to work hard to bring the plant back. The experience was frustrating but educational.

Now that it's healthy again I can fully appreciate dramatic seasonal transformations from bare stems to full cover, which is remarkable. I've repositioned it in a tree stump or old structure being naturalised and improved my attention to providing a robust support structure before planting. bare structure in winter revealing the interesting stem framework was the proof that the plant had fully recovered — genuinely beautiful. Moral of the story: inspect regularly and catch problems early.