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Wisteria

Question from Robin:
Was reading in your So. Cal. Organic Gardening about Wisteria. You mentioned cutting unwanted young shoots down to two buds from May onward. Is it to late to trim them now? I know Wisteria is a light feeder but yours look so glorious! Is it the soil and feeding regime or happy neglect. Hoping for number three.

Answer from Pat:
The main secret with growing a great wisteria is pruning and training. I am sorry to say it is not happy neglect! It is for this reason that I’ve covered the subject more fully than ever in the latest issue of my book “Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening Month by Month.” (2010) I figure if folks don’t comprehend the first time maybe they will catch on the second time.

When first planting wisteria the most important thing is to make the decision between a Chinese wisteria or a Japanese variety and additionally choose a good variety. (There is a wide choice.) Secondly, make sure it’s grafted, not from a seed. Thirdly, Feed water and train it for the first three years. (Very important during training not subject it to benign neglect! Keep training the way you want it to grow and tying gently into place. This will become the main structure.)

Once a wisteria has become a neglected rats-nest of growth it’s too late to straighten it out. After three years a well-trained and arranged wisteria should cover the structure you have built for it. After that, the most important thing is pruning. After an established wisteria blooms it will put out a twiner from every branch or spur that has bloomed. As soon as the first crop of twiners has sprouted and grown to be a few feet long (about two weeks after bloom is finished) cut each of those twiners back, leaving only one or two buds still attached to the main vine. This is what makes it continue to sport bloom all summer long. This is also why my wisteria is so spectacular because every time you make a cut that will produce a spur that will produce buds in fall that bloom in spring.

If you do this now while the wood is bare, it’s too late to create the spurs. Also, if you don’t know what you are doing you may cut off all the spur wood that will bloom in spring.

On the other hand if you have a mature wisteria that is all covered with a bunch of twiners and if you understand what a twiner is, you could cut them back to two buds now, but it would be a difficult job. (A twiner is a long, straight, thin branch, about as thick as a pencil at the thickest and it will grab hold of what ever it finds and then twine around it. These need to come off in summer as soon as they grow. A wisteria produces hundreds of them. But don’t cut them off clean or you will remove all next year’s bloom. Always leave one or at the most two buds on the plant, a stub of the twiner in other words is left on the parent plant.

This shows my wisteria when it was about ten years old. First notice how I trained the original twiners counterclockwise around the post all together and all in the same direction. A neglected wisteria will just become a rats nest of growth instead of having this neat, tidy look. (Chinese wisterias twine counter clockwise. Japanese wisterias twine clockwise, but do not do it in an organized manner.) These have grafted themselves together and made a single trunk. This is what is called the framework of your vine. On top of the pergola I arranged the growth in a straight line, not letting it twine. This part becomes like branches of a tree. Now fifteen or twenty years later, this trunk is as thick as a tree and is bending the post but also supporting it. (We are currently replacing some of the posts that have rotted and also much of the upper structure of the pergola, but that is to be expected after twenty-five years.)

The twisted growths in this photo are the spurs. Never cut these off because they produce most of the bloom and usually live for eight to ten years before rotting and falling off to be replaced by others. When in summer you cut off a twiner leave some buds connected to the vine, a has been done here. This is how you stimulate creation of more spurs that will be covered in bloom in spring as shown in my other photos. All the fat buds in this photo will produce blooms in February and March.

Notice the one straight piece of wisteria wood of golden,brownish color that sprouts from the spur on the right side of the post at the bottom of the photo and angles to the left, (crossing the post towards the left.) This is a twiner that was clipped off the prior summer leaving about two feet of growth on the plant. It could be shortened now without doing any harm. At the bottom of it a spur is just beginning to thicken and form with one bud on it. It will eventually take on a twisted shape like the others in this photo. I would clip that off now in winter just above the visible bud that is on top of the knothole on the post.

This photo shows my wisteria (Wisteria sinensis ‘Cooke’s Special’) blooming to the ground when it was approximately four years old. Notice on the post that I have carefully arranged all the original twiners when they first grew so they all go in the same direction neatly up the post. Next, in summer after the first year of bloom, every week or two I cut off all the twiners that sprouted from the basic structure back to one or two buds. Each of these cuts will produce a spur covered with bloom. On the lower right in this photo you see a blooming spur, now about a foot long. It has been growing there for about 3 years and getting longer each time one cuts off the twiners from it in summer. In this photo it bears seven or more blooms. I would be shortening it a little the following year so it doesn’t get too long.

The photo with bare wood in winter shows one of the posts with many spurs growing from the woody wisteria vine. All those spurs will produce even more abundant bloom that you see here. I probably took this photo when the vine was very young.

Comments

  1. Wow…. I will NEVER claim you are not through! I knew there was a real art to a glorious wisteria (happy neglect was my weak humor) but as with many garden topics there are layers to understanding the concept. Bless you for your precise description and pictures. I actually think I understand the concept! My other challenge is my lovely Olivenhain clay soil so I attempted to plant them with a small amount of amendment. Do they benefit with some organic mulch around the perimeter? I’ve read where they do best with minimal to zero fertilizer but something tells me these are Northern Californians gardeners. End of this topic (maybe).

    • Wisteria seems to be something everyone wants to learn about. It’s a great plant for Southern California since it’s not as invasive here as the Deep South and other places where it can get loose in nature. Also it brings birds and is very drought-resistant once established.

      Clay soil is a problem, but one of my daughters grew lovely wisterias in Olivenhain. Don’t overwater and if a wisteria dies from root rot, read the other comments on my blog for some solutions. A raised bed of only 4 inches can help. No, mulch is not a necessity for wisteria, though it does no harm as far as I can see. As I’ve said and written many times before, fertilize for first three years to get your plants going and to speed them to cover the structure you have built for them. After that, none is needed.

  2. what kind of fertilizer; how much for one year old; how often?

    • The best way to begin growing a wisteria is to plant a bare-root plant when these are for sale at local nurseries, in Southern California this means January. Provide good drainage as explained page 40 of my book. Put gypsum in bottom of planting hole as explained page 21.

      Once having planted the wisteria. Water it twice or three times the first week then once a week when rains aren’t adequate. In February or March begin fertilizing. You have a choice of ways to go. Either feed once a month from March through June, beginning in March with fish emulsion, mixed according to directions, or apply an all-purpose fertilizer such as Gro-Power, according to package directions, beginning in February and feed three times a year for the first three years of growth: in February, April, and June. (Gro-Power is not totally organic but it is mainly organic and very effective. Fish emulsion works too and is a very safe and mild fertilizer to use.) During these first three years of growth, be sure to train the vine as it grows (so it doesn’t go every which way and become a rats nest). Start it up a post in the right direction, clockwise for Japanese varieties and counter-clockwise for Chinese varieties. After you have fed the plant as I recommend above for the first 2 years, in the third year you can just feed it once in March with any all-purpose organic fertilizer of your choice, according to package directions. Water in well. After these first three years, you will never again need to fertilize wisteria and by the end of this time it should have covered the pergola or support you are growing it on.

      March is a good time to feed all basic plants in the landscape if they need it. Once plants are thoroughly established and if regularly mulched they might never need feeding. Many specialty plants, such as roses, geraniums, cymbidiums, camellias and azaleas and many other special groups of plants need special fertilizing plans of their own. All this is explained in my book month-by-month and mentioned on the checklists at the end of each chapter.

  3. I live in denver co i just bought a aunt dee wisteria and want to know if it’s a Chinese or a Japanese so if you can help i really appreciate it. I’s my first time planting anything so I hope you can help me out. I want to know if when i should start prunning it and how much water it needs i plant it where it has sun in the afternoon till about 6 did i do this right. I also bought a endleess summer hydrangea a i planted it in the same area as the wisteria along with some clematis can you let me know if i did this right. Can you please let me know when to prune these plant and how to fertilize them since i do live in a colder climate area thank you. P.S I just put these plant down in the ground this month am i safe.

    • The wisteria you purchased, Wisteria macrostachya ‘Aunt Dee’ is neither Japanese nor Chinese. It is a selection of an American species of wisteria, native to Kentucky and it is very hardy, able to take cold winters that would kill Chinese wisteria (W. chinensis) or Japanese wisteria (W. floribunda.) Wisteria machrostachya, unlike oriental wisterias is not drought-resistant. In fact it is native to swamps, so it needs a lot of water. It loves to grow next to a natural pond where it will send its roots into the water. Like another American species, W. venusta, this one can even thrive in a well-watered lawn. Feed it regularly to encourage growth and when young water it deeply to encourage deep roots. Like Chinese wisteria this one climbs counter-clockwise. Most varieties of W. macrostachya have long racemes. According to Peter Valder in his book “Wisterias”, the flowers can be brought into the kitchen, washed, dipped in batter and fried as a vegetable. Monrovia nursery, who carries the ‘Aunt Dee’ cultivar, suggests pruning it heavily in summer to control its size.

    • The wisteria you bought is neither Chinese nor Japanese, it’s native to Kentucky in the USA and very hardy. (In the world of horticulture, the word “hardy” means only one thing, not that it is easy to grow but that it can survive cold winters.) It grows in swamps so it can also take, in fact it needs plentiful irrigation. It will even grow in a wet lawn or next to a pond where it can sink its feet in water. The botanical and varietal name of this wisteria is Wisteria macrostachya ‘Aunt Dee’. When planting a wisteria, provide a strong support, such as a pergola for it to grow on, though they can also be trained onto fences or allowed to scramble into a tree. The sun should be okay since wisterias are not as fussy as most climbers that bloom and most wisterias will bloom in half day sun. Young wisterias do not need much pruning other than training them up onto a support. Any long twining growth should be gently tied down onto the support and as you arrange this fresh growth for about three years, remember this will eventually become heavy wood, so be careful not to allow it to grow into a rat’s nest, since the wood in that rats nest will grow thick and heavy some day and that would be impossible to untangle. It is impossible to untangle even when young when once it has twined around something so don’t let it twine unless it’s twining just the way you want it to. This wisteria twines counter-clockwise so arrange all the young branches that way up the post as they are growing taller. They will eventually graft naturally to one another until they make a thick twining trunk. Or, if you prefer you can tie them together in a straight bunch and arrange the bunch so it goes straight up to the top of the pergola and once there separate them out like branches and arrange them in a straight line down the top of the pergola, each one a few inches from the other. Cut off any branch that is sticking straight up in the air from these but do this job in summer and leave a stub at the bottom of about 6 inches so it can make buds that will bloom in spring. Once you have managed to arrange the main branches onto the pergola or other support just the way you want them, then begin pruning back hard every summer after bloom to keep this large rampant vine in check. Leave stubs of 5 or 6 inches in length with a couple of buds on them. Hard summer pruning of wisterias is usually needed after the vine is 3 or 4 years old. Prior to that you will be training all new growth down flat onto the pergola and only cuttting off those parts that are growing out of bounds from where you want them. Hydrangea ‘Endless Summer” sounds fine where it is, but once the wisteria is growing overhead it might not have enough sun. Notice what it says on the label that comes with this plant. It also needs acid soil, though in this case it is white and will never turn blue, but nonetheless this plant should not be too near concrete, which is alkaline. Cut back the faded blooms in fall down to a promising bud. Do not cut back stems that have not bloomed. They will bloom next year. It probably was not a good idea to plant clematis close to wisteria. Wisteria has vigorous roots and clematis, which is another climber that needs some support, is not vigorously rooted enough to compete with such a vigorous plant as wisteria. Choose another spot and dig a big hole filling it with lots of organic matter. This is where to plant your clematis. It likes full sun up above and full shade on its roots. The best one I ever saw in California was growing up the railing of some outdoor stairs that were in full sun and the roots of the plant were in a compost-enriched bed in full shade under the stairs. Be sure to learn which kind of clematis you can research how to prune it. Each type needs specific and correct pruning. (See my book for instructions.) Don’t fertilize now. Wait until spring to fertilize all these plants. You planted them in fall and you want them to go dormant in winter. Fertilizer now except for bone meal under the roots would stimulate too much growth. Feed hydrangeas with acid fertilizer such as camellia and azalea food after the weather has warmed up and the plant has begun to grow again. Fertilize your ‘Aunt Dee’ wisteria as soon as it has put out fresh foliage and new growth. Give it a balanced fertilizer and feed it at regular intervals such as once a month while it is young to keep it growing. Water the fertilizer thoroughly into the ground and water this wisteria deeply to encourage deep roots while it is young. Fertilize clematis with balanced organic fertilizer after growth begins. Use any fertilizer that is balanced or complete, not an acid fertilizer. Clematis likes a slightly alkaline soil but usually it’s not necessary to add lime, since most soils and irrigation water in the West are slightly or very alkaline.

  4. My Wisteria is as you described “a rats nest” and not blooming. We have always kept the runners from growing into near by trees but never did a good pruning. When is the best time to prune it and start over. It bloomed for two years then stopped. I would love to send you a picture of it and get your help!

    Thanks for any info you can give me.

    • When a wisteria does not bloom there is only one reason: You planted a seed-grown plant. Seed-grown wisterias do not bloom for 12 or more years. Also when they finally do bloom they are not worth growing since the color is dull and uninteresting and blooms are nothing to write home about. You should always begin with a grafted plant. These are inexpensive if you purchase them in January bareroot. Choose a Japanese or Chinese named variety and train it according to the instructions in my book. You will most likely have blooms the first year and always thereafter. My advice is to cut it down, dig out the roots and start over with a good, grafted wisteria, such as Wisteria sinensis ‘Cooke’s Special’, to name just one.

  5. Pat,

    My wysteria has some yellow leaves on the lower portion of the newly planted plant – late May this year. I don’t know what variety this species is but it did bloom this later spring. It is planted next to a concrete patio and is growing up the 30 lb test line I have fasten from the bottom of the fiberglass pillar to the thick cedar wood I have that runs the length of the pergola. I am training the vine along the top of the pergola. But the yellow leaves bother me.

    I live in NW Ohio with a lot of clay soil. I don’t water the plant that often, I have a schedule, but with the clay soil the moister doesn’t dissipate like it should for wysteria.

    I recently sprayed the foliage with a fungicide just in case but I really believe the moist clay is mostly the problem. I have read that when watering the wysteria make sure to water away from the stem … allow the roots to seek out the water a little distance from the plant. This way there isn’t the chance of water pooling below the stem and chocking the roots at that point. This sounds like solid advice.

    What do you say about the yellow leaves, watering and whether or not I should be treating the plant with some nutrients – iron?

    I appreciate your advice.

    Rod

  6. Denver, Colorado is in Sunset Zone 2B and thus you should be able to grow Japanese wisteria (Wisteria floribunda) in Denver. I have heard that there is a very old wisteria growing in Denver, so I would definitely give it a try. However, do not try growing Chinese wisteria (W. sinensis) or silky wisteria (W. venusta) since they are not as hardy. Yes, Wisteria floribunda ‘Blue Moon’, bred in Minnesota, is reputed to be very cold hardy and would be an excellent choice. I would definitely plant that one. You can purchase it by mail at Wayside Gardens.

  7. I too have a ‘Cooke’s Special’ and am wondering how pruning of the actively growing twiners will affect the repeat summer blooming that this cultivar is known for? It has been beautiful the last few summers without pruning, but is getting out of control and need to be cut back.

    Thanks for the help!

    • Do you have a copy of my organic book? It explains in month by month format when and how to prune wisteria. Re: repeat bloom on ‘Cooke’s Special’, this only occurs when you cut off the twiners in summer. Then and only then will it sport one bloom for each cut you have made. But when you cut off the twiner, you must always leave one or at the most 2 buds on the vine. One bud is next to each leaf, so in other words leave one or two leaves on the vine. Once your wisteria has become a rats nest of growth it is going to be more of a struggle to correct, but you can do it. The way to get rid of all that build up on top of your support is to cut back old wood back to a branch with a leaf. Then you won’t kill it or prevent more bloom the next year. After you have cut back that way to a living side branch, it will sprout back down further on the old wood, then you can safely cut again and so forth all summer long until you have gotten rid of all the excess messy growth. Here is a brief TV show in which I tell about wisteria and demonstrate cutting back to 2 buds. I will try to make some U-Tube video’s of this subject as soon as possible.
      http://www.sandiego6.com/san-diego-living/Plant-Your-Garden-in-a-Drought-251481511.html

      • Thank you for the explanation Pat! Also really enjoyed your delightful and informative video from San Diego Living.

        While cutting back the wisteria I discovered that the cross members of its pergola are deteriorated and must be replaced. The only plus side to this is that it will give me the opportunity to retrain the vine for easier maintenance pruning…

        • A few years ago I had my pergola totally rebuilt. The men jacked up the wood of the wisteria in winter when the leaves were off, removed the rotted wood and then slid new pieces of wood into the same places. This included, the wood supporting the entire structure from end to end and several of the posts which did not have the wisteria climbing up them. I had already reduced the height of the wisteria by cutting back progressively to places lower down on the vine that bore leaves. When you do that it branches further down and then you can cut again, down to the new spot that sent out a sprout. This can take an entire summer, cutting the vine back on top once every week or two, each time down to new, young branches (twiners.) In this way, we reduced the height on top of the pergola by at least 4 feet of growth, taking off hundreds of pounds of heavy wood, and it bloomed as well as ever the following spring. When pruning in winter it is very important not to cut down to bare wood thus removing all growing tips and buds that will grow in spring, since if you take off the leading buds old wood will often simply die back and never grow again. This is the way many people kill or ruin their wisterias. Also many people make the mistake of cutting off the spurs in winter since they look “messy”, but wisteria mainly blooms on spur wood and the spurs can live for as long as 10 or 15 years and bear masses of flowers each year before dropping off naturally.

  8. Hi Pat,

    I live by SDSU on a canyon and would love to grow wisteria on the chainlink fence decending the bank. Does this seem like enough support? If so how many feet could I expect one vine to cover? meaning at what intervals should I plant along the fence?

    • Yes, a chain link fence is strong enough to support wisteria, but I recommend that you tie the twiners as they grow while the vine is young, in straight lines on top and alongside the fence and tie them gently in place. Then as it sends out twiners through the years, you can let them jut through the fence and hold everything up. The reason is that this basic structure will become huge and woody in time, like a tree, and there is not space between the links for it to twine. You would eventually have to cut it down, but if you do it straight as I suggest the vine could live and bloom indefinitely, as long as it is balanced and not too heavy on one side of the fence compared to the other side.

      Ideally you need to be able to get on both sides of the fence in order to prune it throughout the summer once it has covered the fence. Without summer pruning it will become a rats nest of tangled growth.You could however get yourself a grab-and-hold, long-reach pruner and you could stick it through the holes in the chain link and cut off the twiners that sprout on the other side and pull them back tthrough so you can discard them. Without owning a I do not know how anyone could prune a wisteria in the correct way. Once it has covered the fence, then throughout summer you need to cut back the twiners to 1 or 2 buds as they grow. I am doing that now in June with mine and it is covered all over with blossoms. Every time you cut back one twiner it pops out a bloom. We cut them back once a week. Regarding how many vines you need I think I would plant one every 8 or 10 feet apart, but it depends on how patient you are about getting the vines to the point where they cover the fence. Incidentally, I recommend you choose a Chinese wisteria instead of a Japanese one for this purpose.

      • Thank you so much for the detailed response.
        I own both your oringinal and organic books in addition to All My Edens. I intend to use the redicrete bag method you provided for my canyon steps.

  9. i purchased a blue chinese wisteria tree planted in front yard and it doesnt have a leaf or bloom anywhere. i live in zone 5 missouri. my question is how long will it take for this tree to bloom. its been planted almost three months. its six foot tall stick.

    • Another idea for you: Purchase some humic acid and soak the ground with that. It stimulates root growth and might wake up your bareroot plant and get it growing. Very often folks just don’t water enough after planting bareroot, but the plant may not be dead.

    • If your wisteria is a Japanese and not a Chinese wisteria it should survive winters in Missouri. You might have failed to water it enough at planting time. Bare root plants must be soaked in a bucket prior to planting, then planted and kept watered after planting to get them started. Try watering now and perhaps it will come to life. If the roots still have life in them, it might make it. Also, once it gets started, if that happens, be sure to fertilize. Wisterias need plenty of water and fertilizer to get started.

      By the way, always test the drainage before planting. Wisteria will die in bad drainage. I have mentioned this in this blog many times. It is on page 40 of my organic gardening book. Briefly in nutshell: dig hole, fill with water and let drain out. Fill with water again and put stick across hole. Measure rate water goes down. If it drains out at the rate of 1/4 inch per hour, drainage is okay. If not, build a raised bed 4 inches high, fill it with the same soil as in the hole, dig down straight through and plant you wisteria. Water regularly to get started, 3 X per week for first week or two. 2X per week for next two weeks. One time per week for next month or two. Then let water system take over. Once established wisterias are drought resistant but not when young.

    • Here is another p.s. to answer your query. I note you purchased a Chinese wisteria and not a Japanese one. Though a Chinese wisteria might be able to survive in your climate zone, they are not as hardy as Japanese ones and the flower buds or even the entire Chinese variety may be killed during winter in Missouri. However, your blue Chinese variety was most likely grafted onto Japanese roots. My guess is that the roots are still alive and could grow again if you water and feed them. The only problem is that if the roots do grow and send out a sprout, this sprout will most likely come from below the graft. This means that the flowers will not be as spectacular as they would be if you had purchased a Japanese variety in the first place. The plant used as rootstock is most likely seed-grown, strong-growing and winter-hardy, but not one having the most beautiful flowers, though they will be light purple. Additionally, if the plant springs from the roots below the graft it might take perhaps as many as twelve years before it blooms. Here is what I recommend: Do what I have suggested so far and see if the plant comes to life. If it does, then feed it this summer with a balanced fertilizer and get it growing vigorously. But if after doing this it does not bloom next year, then dig it out and buy another, but this time choose a beautiful, named Japanese variety, such as ‘Plena’ or some other good variety of your choice.

  10. I live in the south near Savannah GA. The wisteria that blooms here is often in the wild and the flowers only last 1-2 weeks. That’s it til next year. Why is this? Is this typical of all wisteria plants?

    • All wisterias are spring-blooming plants but provide pleasant shade during summer. If one prunes throughout summer to cut off the streamers or twiners, as I call them (but leaving at least one bud on the parent plant) and thus keep wisterias in check, then they will “sport” a bloom each time you cut off a twiner, on the bud you left behind. In the South wisterias are considered a noxious weed and in some areas are invasive. A variety that is often grown in the south is the silky wisteria (Wisteria brachybotrys) which can take more water than Japanese or Chinese wisterias.

  11. Hi, I have a aunt Dee macrostachya. Live in Dallas, tx. I’ve had it for 3 years now and was growing well until now that it is losing all the leaves. Is that normal? what kind of fertelizer should I use? Thanks.Sam

    • Wisteria is a deciduous vine. It’s totally normal for it to lose leaves in autumn. September is a bit too early to lose them since technically it’s still summer, but a cold night can produce this effect any time after mid-August when summer growth slows. Currently some areas have already had a cold snap. You might be in one of those areas. If all the leaves suddenly fall off from a three year old vine in early September, then I would look for a problem like the two extremes: total lack of water on the one side or root rot on the other. Usually when all leaves fall suddenly from a wisteria at the wrong time of year, such as late spring, nine times out of ten root rot from bad drainage is what killed it, but it’s too soon to worry about that now. You will know next spring if your vine died since if it died it would not leaf out. There is a great deal of information on wisteria in my organic book. Also a book I wrote called “All My Edens: A Gardener’s Memoir”, which is out of print but still available on the internet has a whole chapter on it, but I’ve learned a lot more about pruning and training wisteria since I wrote that book. I’ve included that info in my latest all-organic book, Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening, Month-by-Month. You asked me about fertilizer. Any balanced or complete fertilizer is fine for wisteria, but it only needs fertilizer during the first three years of life. If you have never fertilized it and it’s stunted and never covered its support, and if it comes back next spring then fertilize it next year, beginning in late spring after it has leafed out. Whatever you do, don’t feed it now since you don’t want to stimulate growth in autumn, a time when growth should be slowing down. If next spring it does not come back, then dig it out and plant another, but before planting test the drainage. (As described on Page 40 in my organic book.) If drainage is not adequate, build a raised bed and plant in that. 4 inches high is enough. Add soil and dig the two together so you are not making a horizon between soils, and plant straight down through both. If lack of drainage is due to alkaline clay soil, dig some gypsum in the bottom of the planting hole. Don’t give up! If one plants 6 wisterias on a pergola it’s common for two of them to die but the remaining one’s will be enough to cover the pergola.

  12. Hi Pat,etc.

    Help ;,(
    I’m in Southern California and can’t find a bare root wisteria to save my life! The nurseries don’t carry bare root, further they’re not in stock till April.

    Are the pink ones harder to grow than the purple ones?

    • This is the month of April and thus it is not the time to find bare-root plants. Wisterias are growing now—no longer dormant without leaves— and thus it’s impossible for them to be bare root. December or January is the only time you can find wisterias sold in bare root form. Now in April if you wish you can find excellent grafted varieties of wisteria at good nurseries, but they will be growing in cans. However, now is a fine time to plant. Be sure to provide good drainage. If you purchase a wisteria now, unless it is in bloom and or correctly marked with the variety name it might be difficult to find a pink variety. Recently I have seen two pink grafted wisterias. One was at Rogers Gardens in Corona Del Mar. Another was at an Armstrong nursery. (Phone ahead to check.) However, if the wisteria is no longer in bloom when you purchase it you might find that it is not the color you want when it blooms the following spring. If it is marked with the variety name and is a pink or rosea form, however, and if it came from Monrovia Nursery it’s usually okay. Be sure not to purchase your plant at a cut-rate store since it’s likely to be seed-grown and thus won’t bloom for 12 or more years and also it will be no good when it does. Flowers will have poor color, fade and fall off sooner and none of them will be pink. Yes, pink varieties are more difficult to find, but I see them every year in spring at good nurseries. You can also order one through your local nursery and ask for one from Monrovia. They grow a good pink variety.

  13. Nancy Russell

    I HAVE A LAVENDER WISTERIA THAT HAS GROWN UP A BLACK LOCUST TREE HERE IN PA AND IT HAS BEEN SPECTACULAR FOR MANY SPRINGS BUT THIS SPRING NOT A BLOOM. CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT MAY HAVE HAPPENED? I MISS ITS SHOW EVEN THO THE SEED PODS IT SHEDS I HAVE TO CONSTANTLY PICK UP SO MY LAWN DOESN’T BECOME A LAWN OF WISTERIA SEEDLINGS.

    • In most cases when a wisteria fails to bloom it is caused by one of two problems. One is that someone pruned the vine incorrectly in winter and cut off all the spur wood that bears flower buds. The other reason is extremely harsh arctic weather which froze off the flower buds either in winter or shortly before they were ready to open. Most of the flower buds of wisteria that bloom in spring are formed in autumn of the prior year.

  14. Hi, this information is great, thank you so much. I live in the San Diego area and just planted a few days ago a Blue Chinese Wisteria so it’s a little bit later than you recommend. My question is, should I start fertilizing it now since you said to start that in March/April? Or do I need to wait a few weeks first? I’m trying to do everything right with this baby. Thank you.

    • Since it is now late December I am taking it for granted that you planted a bare-root wisteria. It is fine to plant wisteria bare-root in December or January. I suggest you wait to fertilize until you see signs of growth in March or April. However, now is a fine time to add a planting liquid. As I have stated many times, Vit B liquid is a waste of money and was scientifically proven to be totally ineffective many years ago. The best planting liquid available is humic acid. You can find this product online. Powdered humic acid is easy to use and is an incredible root stimulant. Simply mix with water according to package directions and pour into the watering basin of your plant.

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