Wisteria

 
Hiya


Yet another question for you green fingered bunch.
I also inherited a large wisteria (covers most of the front of my house)
problem is that it's not had anything done pruning wise so it's now at
the "triffid" stage (i like to keep all my windows open and regularly
have to chop off the tentacles that seem to want to live
indoors....heehee), i have taken the long whispy bits back to 6 shoots
but there is a rather large tangled mess in the middle (about 2/3 foot
thick) that is mainly bare woody stems and i'm a little unsure what to
do....a few people have advised me to cut it back to the ground and
start again.....but i REALLY don't want to)

I searched wisteria posts but none helped as they were maily about
general pruning and not what to do with an out of control mess....haha

It was all bare when i moved in at the begining of february but soon
greened up and did flower quite well (stunning!!!) so i don't want to do
anything too drastic.....


I will get some pics tonight so you can see the extent of what i'm
talking about


Thanks in advance

Kate




--
Genie2312

 

Leave it alone now until its lost its leaves, you can then remove unwanted
stems, look for the short stubby flowering spurs and try and keep those
parts with lots of them and remove those stems without any, in summer after
flowering you can constantly shorten all those long whippy trails, I am
afraid if it is Wisteria sinensis it will be a constant job to keep it
looking good, less so for Wisteria floribunda, but an established wisteria
is a great asset and I certainly would advise not to cut it right down as it
might be several years before it flowers again and it will only make the
situation worse. You either have to work at it (like a hedge) or get rid of
it, there is no easy way


--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk  

 
'Charlie Pridham[_2_ Wrote:

Thank you Charlie......i was thinking it would be easier when i can see
what i am doing!!!

I'm not sure which of them it is....googled images and they both look
the same to my novice eye :/

I will leave it till feb and then see what happens....think i might get
someone in that knows what they are doing though as it was spectacular
when it flowered so i don't want to upset it




--
Genie2312

 
We've five wisterias, including one which was here when we moved into
our house nearly forty years ago.


Throughout  the summer they produce long "stringers" from various
places. I always prune them back as soon as they appear, they can grow
several inches overnight. It's a weekly job for me, well into
September.


Think of your wisteria as a "leaky hose." The energy of the plant is
going into these stringers and possibly not where you want it to go.


Don't be frightened of pruning at this time of year. You've probably
some branches that are as thick as hoses and are growing all over the
place finishing with a clump of foliage at the ends. Decide what you
want to keep and cut the others  off from where the leave the main
trunk, if you think they are superfluous. You might need a saw (but make
sure you are pruning the right one!)


An ideal wisteria shape  is this one, which we have trained over the
last fifteen years. It's attached to horizontal wires stretched between
the concrete fence posts which I drilled for "eyes" to connect the
wires.


You need to prune the side shoots  back to between two and four buds in
January. I actually do ours  between Christmas and New Year.


If you leave it until spring you won't get many blooms.

You will know you've got it right when the blooms appear before the
foliage. Here they are coming out in mid April this year.


[image: http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/2636/p1030606m.jpg ]

This is the same plant five weeks later.

[image: http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/6571/p1020925gf.jpg ]

They are very adaptable This is a branch of the  same plant I've trained
round the eaves of our Japanese tea-house.


[image: http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/3273/p1020923i.jpg ]

[image: http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/6837/p1020972r.jpg ]

This is our oldest. This is in late April, it flowers first, because of
the heat from the adjacent koi pool.

This got some heavy pruning a couple of weeks ago to reduce the canopy
to two rows of "heads" down each side of the length of the pergola. It
had got to the stage where the canopy was solid with foliage in the
summer and you couldn't see half the blooms. A good few of those
branches you can see against the garage wall got the chop.

That pergola is sixteen feet long and the plant then goes along another
fifteen foot fence and onto the pergola at the back of the house.



[image: http://img852.imageshack.us/img852/460/p1030632.jpg ]




--
Doghouse Riley

 
Doghouse Riley;936771 Wrote:

they are fantastic pics....the first one is stunning....and i love how
you have trained it round the tea room.....

thank you for the advice.....it's been really helpful....i feel a bit
more confident now.....going to leave it till feb when i can see what
i'm doing and take it right back to the main branches........i looked
through it yesterday and there are quite a few very thick
stems/trunks.....but lots of woody whispy bits too.....so i think it's
all those that need taking out....


thanks again for your advice




--
Genie2312