Wisteria Frutescens HELP

Hi

My mum bought a Wisteria Frutescens a few weeks ago (maybe longer) with the hope of getting it to grow up get fence.

She is a complete garden novice (as am I) and didn’t really know what to do. Since then she had become VERY ill and it’s been left in its pot.

I really want to sort it for her to cheer her up but like I said, I am a complete novice. The problem is, it’s in quite a big pot and so when placed on the wall against the fence she wished it to grow on, it’s no where near the fence so can’t see how it would reach haha!

There is a small gap between the fence and the wall (possibly a hand width) so wondered if something like a planter bag would fit down the gap and then I plant it in there? Not sure if that would be good enough for the plant to grow :(

Also, the plant is established and it already around some trellace so not sure how to deal with that?

Any advice would be great, I’ve included a picture of the plant as it is currently. It’s is in front of the wall/fence she wanted it to grow up.

 

Hi and welcome.


For a kick off, that pot is far too small. You will eventually need a much bigger one.

Look at the size of the root of one of ours. It's about twenty years old.
It's supported on horizontal wires between the concrete posts, it's not attached to the fence panels. Even that bed at 18" wide is a bit tight for it as it's starting to lift the little wall.



I'd get a big rectangular tub which you can push hard up against that low wall.
But don't move it yet, get a much longer cane and train it up that for now. It'll be six feet tall before the end of the Summer. Leave the support it has at the moment until after you've swopped it into the bigger tub. You can then cut out the old support I presume that isn't your fence, if so, have a word with your neighbour about drilling two posts for some eyes about every foot, probably three or four will be enough. Then string some wire between the eyes horizontally. Wisteria are very "bendy," so you'll have no trouble attaching the branches to the wires. Once in its new tub and transferred to the wires you can lose the stick.


This is a new one of ours which replaced one that died.
They grow quickly.
This was it on 15th April, when we bought it.



This was it on 29th of May. It's in training, eventually it'll grow over the pergola as did the one it replaced. I'm training three branches to grow over the pergola and a couple each side to grow along the wires.





They need training. They'll continually bang out new side shoots, particularly around the base, prune off the ones you don't want so the energy of the plant goes into the ones you want to train. It's an ongoing task through summer and into Autumn, well it is with ours.

It's hard to see but I'm assuming that patio or whatever has flags. Might be simpler to take one out and plant it in the ground. It'll be around for a long time.

 

Hello,

Thank you for your response!

So let me just confirm (I am clueless so want to be 100% sure)

Leave it in that green tub and just put in more canes to grow it to around 6 foot, then transfer to a big rectualgual tub (do you have approximate dimensions you could suggest?) and leave it on the ground against th wall and Train it to bend towards the fence? Or should I put the tub on the wall?

Sorry for sounding stupid xx

 

P.s yours plants look lovely xx

 

Thanks for your advice, see my other post for more questions please

 

Hi @BSummers ,
Is it possible you could tell us the name please. It looks like it could be "Amethyst Falls " .

If this is the case then this is a dwarf bush which can be kept in a tub and will only reach a height of about 5'.

It won't climb or be as big as any of @Doghouse Riley 's beautiful specimens ( sorry Doghouse Riley , I think you may have just seen "Wisteria " and thought they were all the same ).

 

Hi,

You're not sounding stupid you're asking sensible questions.

We've five wisterias they're all planted in the ground. But our daughter had one in a big tub,
it WAS oblong about 2' 6" X 2' X 2' deep. That was twenty years ago and she was planning for the long term. It was on the drive next to her kitchen door and grew it over the door and the side kitchen window. A distance of at least 20ft. But she's had an extension built five years ago, so the wisteria had to go.

Is there no way it can be planted in the ground? Even in a big tub, they can easily dry out in hot weather, particularly if they're on a patio as the heat will come up from the paving.

If that's not an option, when you transfer it to a bigger tub, as you plant it, angle it towards the fence. It doesn't matter if it doesn't get close to the fence near the bottom as long as it starts getting some support a couple of feet up from the roots. Eventually the trunk won't need any support, it's just the branches if you train them to grow yards from it.

I looked up your variety and here's a photo showing just one example of what you could achieve. If the fence were taller, it could still be trained up it. A wisteria will mostly grow where you point it, it's much like a weed.



Lots of other examples here, (not all the same as yours).

wisteria frutescens - Google Search

 

Hi @BSummers to GC and nice to have you with us.

Your in sound hands with members advice and everyone begins somewhere in whatever they do...always fire away with questions and members will help best possible

 

Hi

It is the type you say, so does that mean I won’t be able to get it up the fence?

 

Just because, if I put the tub in the wall, it’s akready as tall as the fence haha!

My dad won’t let me knock the wall out or anything :(

 

Left to it's own devices, your wisteria probably won't grow very tall. That's because it will be chucking out lots of shoots near the base. But it can be trained to grow taller, as in the photo I posted, where someone has actually trained it to grow upwards and outwards by removing a lot of the unwanted shoots. My point is that lots of plants can be trained, it's entirely up to you to do as you please with it.

 

Hi everyone

I need to revisit help on this plant. I established it was a Amethyst Falls. As per my original post I wanted to tend for it for my mum who was ill as she had bought it and then taken a turn for the worst.

Unfortunately and most heartbreakingly, I never sorted it for her and she died a few weeks ago. I have since been to her house and my dad hasn’t been looking after it. It is still in its pot but had grown quite a lot and tried to wrap itself round the nearby bird table!

My dad isn’t bother about I and doesn’t want tit but It breaks my heart advice it was one of the last things my mum purchased. So I’ve decided to take it and try and grow it in my garden. I have more free reign with what I can do. I can dig a hole directly in the garden by the fence and brown it up there or put it on the patio and grow it up the side of my house etc. What would be the best thing to do?

 

Just read this from the start, im so sorry for your loss. Im not able to advise about the wisteria but I'm sure someone will be able to.
It's a beautiful plant, good luck

 

Sorry but i need to pick your brain, ive let my wisteria start all wrong. From reading your post i alsp need a bigger pot, or put her in the ground. My problem is that where she has grown around the pipe, i need to untangle or remove and chang pope. My question is can i risk untangling. Thank you. Ken.

 

Hi Ken, young wisteria stems are flexible. Trace it up as far as possible and start to unwind it. Don't worry if you have to cut some off the top. The tips often die off anyway. Gently unwind it from around the pipe and re-attach it to the trellis. Wisteria is a plant that repays being trained to a definite framework of stems which will become very woody and heavy with time. Once you have that framework, pruning consists of cutting all the straggly, wispy new growth back to 2 buds so the stubby bits produce flowers.
If you can, it would be worth fixing some very sturdy wire or cable about 2" from the wall as that trellis will be fighting a losing battle!