Wisteria

Hi,

We moved into our house this time last year and have observed 4 seasons of what's happening in our gardens; now we want to star tackling some of the work! At some point a skilled gardener lived here as their was obviously a plan at some point, but the previous owner has left everything to go a little wild.

We have a wisteria growing against the front wall of the cottage. It has lots of foliage and did flower (although the flowers were a little hidden by the newer growth). Having done my homework I know that I should prune in the new year and then again at the end of the summer, each time taking just the new whippy growth back. However, we need to give it a heavier cut back so that it is a little more controllable than it is now.

Should we do that now to enable it to grow enough for us to prune it 'normally' in the new year or should we wait till January and do the lot then? And do you have any tips for an inexperienced gardener both in general wisteria care, and in relation to a heavy prune?

Thanks

 

Hi Lucie,
never owned a Wisty personally but love them for their spectacular displays. Hope you enjoy having a stroll around the Forum today. There are some really clever members who I'm sure will be along later today to help you,

Jenny namaste

 

Thanks Jenny. Am having a good nose around the site.
I don't really know what I'm doing in the garden! but I do love wisteria, and I wanted to plant one here, so I was pleased to see one was here already! Just hope we can get it looking as good as they can do.

 

Welcome Like you, we moved into a house with established wisteria. We trim our rebel strands back as and when they start looking messy, as well as keeping it off the guttering. Other than that we've been waiting until the leaves have fallen, then cutting back to what is to us a decent size. At the end of this year's growth we'll be cutting it back more than we have been, so it's not as close to the roof

 

Thanks Ellen, so I'll hang on till it's lost it's foliage then? And take it a ways back so it's more manageable, and then revisit it in late January time to do the whippy growth.

Excellent.

 

I do out of personal preference, we cut back once while it was in leaf & ended up with bare patches until it filled out again! Ours covers a lot of the wall so it needs to be cut back a bit now so it's more manageable next summer. We've got two,growing towards each other, one is a lot younger than the other. A third one on another wall we won't talk about...

 

I'm no expert, mind it's mostly been trial and error, we only had a lawn & some planters for bedding plants where we used to live!

 

There isn't much space for it around the window, and my husband is a bit cross that the light in our house is always green-tinged!

 

It is a bit on the prolific side!!

 

Its easy to prune , in August I cut the new whippy growths down to 6 leaves , so counting up the new stem then cut.

In January cut these down to , two or three buds, this will help in producing flowering spurs , similar to a apple tree.

If training in new growth and dont want to lose all the new growth that has been made just take out the end 3 or 4 buds which the frost and winter will probably kill off as the wood is not ripened enough to take the cold and tie in as you go.

If you don't want the new growth it has made take out once the leaves have all dropped off not before, and keep as flush to the stem it came from.

Its worth stopping and having a good look just in case you get carried away, not a problem in the summer but any bad cuts etc will look awful over the winter time.

Spruce

 

Wisteria can be hard-pruned, but beware that it may be several years before it resumes flowering "fit to bust". I would make sure to water in Summer, if there is no ran, as that is when flower buds are formed, and that might encourage it to produce some/many! whilst "recovering".

Additionally you will need to do the Summer/ Winter pruning annually