Topic: Wisteria

[AlanP]

I have a Wisteria growing on the gable end of the house, the woodwork and the wires are all coming off the wall. I would like to cut it right back and put up some new wire supports to train it properly, so my question is, how far back can I cut it without killing it and at what time of the year.

Thanks

Alan

[Paulh]

It's pretty hard to kill a Wisteria. Now would be OK to prune if you don't mind losing this year's flowers (or have you had them? - I'm in the Chilterns and mine's not showing buds yet buy in London they in bloom).

The branches are very robust - if you let them down gently from the supports, they are unlikely to break, so you don't need to go back to square one to get a good framework.

One word of caution - some wisterias are grafted and if you are too hard on the pruning, going back to the bottom two or three feet, the rootstock may dominate and all your growth will be from it.

I'd think you could keep a lot of what you've got, just shorten or cut out some bits and fasten the rest back in.

[AlanP]

Thanks Paulh, that's very helpful, its just starting to bud up so I will try and keep it up to get flowers this year, if it blows down, so be it. Didn't think about laying it down, as you say the branches are quite supple so I could probable save quite a bit of it. So it looks like the Autumn after it has dropped the leaves to get the job done.

Thanks again

Alan

[Jeannine]

  I have a wisteria growing up a large arbor. I wanted it gone to put a grape either side so we pulled it out last year. All summer long we kept pulling it out and again this year, the stuff it like mare's tail, it just won't go!!