Questions about Wisteria - Pls help

Hello

We've had a Wisteria in a small pot for about 3 years since we brought it, sat against a north facing wall, so as you can imagine it didn't do well at all, growing to about 7 or 8ft up the wall and never flowering.

We've now got a new more sturdy fence out front so have decided to put it in the ground near that and let it grow along the top of the fence. The soil is clay but i dug a big hole for it, mixing in a bag of multi purpose compost and a few bits of top soil i had lying around. Hopefully if th roots take it'll look good after a year or two.

My only concerns are that the main tendrils look like they maybe stopped growing a year or so ago and have gone woody at the ends. One of them is even bent round a bit. I will upload some pics later so you can see.

My main question is, if the ends of the main tendrils are cut, will they continue to grow next season or will cutting them stop them from ever growing again and force side shoots out instead. We obviously want the main tendrils to continue growing right along the fence but they don't look good. Pics on the way shortly.

Many thanks,
Tree



Here is a pic of the ends of the two main tendrils

 

I agree with Armandii

Trim off all the dead bits , dont be scared , you will be suprised it will romp away next year , and should love the clay soil

They are easy to grow, it will apreciate the sunshine I think you will have flowers next year

Spruce

 

I have a couple of Wisteria, one which I planted myself this year and another next to an arbour where it was being strangled by two grapevines. I chopped the grapevines down and have been encouraging the Wisteria to take over the arbour.

It hasn't flowered much, so this year I decided that, rather than leave it to its own devices, I'd find out what I'm supposed to be doing with it. If you have a look on YouTube there are a few good videos on there showing you how and when to prune. Apparently you are supposed to do it once in July/August and again in January.

I've found mine to be a hardy soul, it's never had any feed or water and it's in dry shade, so I am rectifying that and hoping for lots more flowers next year.

I have noticed it has what looks like a seed pod hanging down, wonder how easy it would be to propagate?

 

Treetops - I think Wisteria is very vigorous, so I see no problem in cutting off a leader if you think it looks damaged or dead. With the leader gone a side shoot will grow strongly and take over as leader.

Yes, I saw that Armandii. It was a very clear illustration of pruning Wisteria. However I always find that programs like that pose new questions.

For instance - why prune like that? I suspect the answer is that it is to ensure that the plant doesn't get too big too quickly. As it flowers on last year's growth, you cut off most of the excess growth but leave enough for plenty of flowers the next year. You leave 2 buds plus another 4 spares in case of accidents. The following January you can do away with your spares.

I suspect that pruning has nothing to do with how well the plant flowers. Its all about maintaining the shape and size. Alan Tichmarsh gave a very good talk a few years ago about pruning Clematis. He explained that it didn't really effect the amount of blooms you get, but if you didn't prune properly you tended to get all the blooms 10 feet high where you couldn't see them, with a bare lower part.

If your Wisteria is very small and you want it to be bigger, I suspect there is no need to prune it at all.

 

...oooh, actually PeterS, it really does make a difference to how many flowers you get with Wisteria.
Obviously, you are right about not pruning the stems you want to train to cover more wall/arbour or whatever. But all those other side shoots can really go mad with no pruning...and yes they do flower, but nowhere near as well.
By cutting back to about six buds in the summer, (I don't actually count exactly!) you stimulate the formation of flower buds. Then in the winter pruning, just about every single shoot you've cut back has flower buds there. If you hadn't cut them, some would be several feet long by now and have started twisting and thickening and would have made vegatative growth and not flower buds.
Treetops, as Armandii, Spruce and PeterS say - cut back the dead and it will make new growth soon enough that you can train along your wires.

 

You'll have seen the Salvias at Newby Hall on GW tonight then PeterS?

 

here is an interesting thread about Wisteria .... it also explains that if it grown from seed, can take up to 12 years to flower, and explains a bit on pruning

Dispelling some myths about Wisteria - UBC Botanical Garden Forums

 

Thats a useful comment Julie - thanks. I think what you are saying is that if you don't prune you still get lots of flowers, but they will be smaller and weedier, whilst much of the energy goes into growing vegitation. So you are controlling the type of flowering. I was really trying to make the point that some people think that their Wisteria isn't flowering because they haven't pruned it properly - and I don't think that's true.

You have put your finger on an important principle here that certainly applies to Dahlias. If you cut off all the side buds you get just one or two huge flowers (this is what people do for exhibitions). But if you cut of the leading bud you encourage a lot more smaller side buds and flowers.

Dim - thanks for a useful link. As you might have gathered I like to try to understand the principles behind gardening - understanding one principle is so much easier than trying to learn 1000 seperate facts. It was a long time before I realised that plants have a juvenile and an adult stage - rather like people. Anything grown from seed has to go through the juvenile stage, during which it can't reproduce - rather like people. With most plants this isn't a very long period. But with trees (and Wisteria is a tree) it can last for many years. Typically 60 years for a Beech tree, and up to 20 years for a Wisteria tree. However if you take a cutting of a adult plant, the cutting is a clone and the cutting will also be adult - even it it is only tiny. Consequently the key thing with Wisteria is to get a cutting not a seed grown plant. However they still didn't explain why you needed a grafted cutting.

Julie - yes I enjoyed the shots of Salvias at Newby Hall, which is very close to me. But was frustrated that they said so little. I think Salvias are a brilliant, but much underated plant, as they flower for so long. But its the lack of hardiness that puts so many people off.

 

Good post Julie
My own wisteria took very many years to flower, and did so last year for the very first (there is a post on it somewhere)
I didn't prune last year (hadn't the time or memory ) and this year the plant only has a few little excuses for flowers
So .. what Julie says sounds to me to be exactly right , and if I can remember, I will follow her advice this year

 

Whis4ey - I think like most plants they have good years and bad years. My Wisteria this year had its best year ever - it was brilliant - and I have never yet pruned it!

I have had it for 7 years from a very small plant, and its now getting to the size where it will start to need pruning. So I will be following Julie's excellent advice.

 

Thank you all for the advice and useful information. I think I'll cut the dodgy looking ends off and see what happens. Hopefully come the spring I'll be able to train new vines up and along the fence, and possibly move the old cut ones down onto the lower part of the fence.
Thanks again for the info, it's really appreciated.

 

Hi
Just so you know , lowering the branches down on to the lower part of the fence will encourage side shoots

Spruce