Last fall we moved to a new unit in our complex and inherited a beautiful garden thanks to the previous tenants. There is a tall clematis (I am 90% sure that it is a clematis) climbing up a trellis along the patio and it is as brown and dried at as a pile of leaves. Before we moved in the people who lived here before told me not to do anything with it and just wait until it comes back in before pruning it. My mother told me the same. But I did not expect it to look so dead.

My husband and his friends almost ripped it out last weekend, but I was adamant about keeping it. I sure will look like an idiot if it doesn't come back. Are they supposed to look like this after a long cold winter?

{{gwi:580592}}

I hope the picture works.