I've read a bunch of recommendations about pruning clematis, by group. But I haven't really found anything that gives an indication of what will happen if I fail to do that pruning.
I assume that "it won't be as nice as it could be" is certainly true, but that still leaves a very wide range of possibilities. I can imagine the more detailed answer being anything from:
- "it'll look fine on the new growth but you'll acquire a bunch of unsightly old growth"
to
- "it'll gradually go entirely blind".
to
- "it'll die after a year or two".
What would be the result?