Unfortunately, it is fairly normal for them to behave this way....

I would do it in my zone but know nothing about a zone as cold as yours.

You are a bit colder than me, but I'm thinking seriously of cutting back any vines that have turned brown. Sometimes that means the entire vine right down to the soil level. My thinking is that if the vine is dead, leaving it climbing the trellis is not going to accomplish anything, so why not cut it down.

If my thinking is screwed up, someone let me know right away--before I get scissor-happy later today. LOL

Kate

I'm thinking about the same thing, except my Henryi seems to be blooming above dead stems. I need to go take a much closer look this weekend, but ratty brown stems don't do much for me.

If the stems are totally brown and dead it should not be a problem cutting them off. Bend the stem gently, if it doesn't snap then it might still be alive. Scratch it to see if there is any green under the brown.

Last year some animal kept cutting the stems at 10-12 inches above the base (on first year plants) and while there was some new growth on the plants when they were killed by our frost the plants are growing well this year. Even with a warmer than usual December for us after a cold November they did not put on new growth.

I cut all my type 3 clems back in the fall after a hardy frost as they die to the ground. The new type 2 clems are still being cut back the same as the type 3s to encourage root growth. I've been told that type 2s die to the ground and will check them when they are older to see if that is so and how to cut them back in the future.

Type 2's bloom on old wood as well as new, so if you prune them back to the ground like the type 3's in the fall, you'll loose your early blooms in spring. That being said, they will bloom later on in the season next year, and type 2's should be treated as type 3's for the first couple of years to help them establish a good root system. Mine are all gong into their 3rd and fourth years next spring, so I will not prune those type 2's down in spring at all. I want the early flowers! I will only prune back the type 3's in spring, but only down to about 6 to 12 inches.
The type 2's can be pruned down a little bit after bloomtime in spring.

I know that type 2 clems will give earlier bloom on old wood if not cut back. Actually had a few double blooms on a young Proteus this spring. Must have left a few inches of old vine last fall when I popped the plant in its pot in a holding bed. I planted it along the fence this spring and had both double and single blossoms on its very short vine. It has single blossoms again now.

I am hoping that it is not true that type 2s die all the way to the ground here in Z:4 as I want those early double blossoms as well. Some of mine are going into their third
spring as well so I will not cut them back and see if there is any old growth on them next spring.

Sometimes if the twigs are really dead, I'll snip them, but usually I find they are green inside. I do, however, pull off dead leaves to clean them up. It suprises me how dead they can appear. Sometimes even bent in half and cracked open, they will grow up beyond the damage and do fine.