Wisteria Root

Hi Lindalooloo....Jane here...will tell Ray about this blog when he returns from work this evening so check again after 7pm !! Best I can do Lol...

Hi Linda it is a bit of a monster isnt it ? Dont worry no need to wait till August if new growth causing problems you never want these through trees or over neighbours so they can be removed now.

August pruning is recommended for any stems you wish to keep these same stems are pruned harder following Feb. and its this that then encourages flower budding before leaf.

It seems that you have only one ? main over head support for it .
A wisteria this size would love a large wall or pergola to send its multiple branches across these are then pruned as suggested.

Trying to keep it to one arch is not impossible but its been left to form large multiple stems with no way of supporting them all so eventually these have been cut back to keep in check . Allowed to re grow till they got out of hand and cut back again etc .. this approach unfortunately promotes leaf growth.

Sorry am I explaining this properly ? Erm imagine your wisteria growing on a wall the only potential flowering stem is the one over the arch so it would be like trying to get only one stem to flower on a wall .Wisteria are effectively fan trained over walls and pergolas to allow multiple stems to flower all these are being trained together over that one arch.

Under these circumstances safe to remove any growth you do not want as a branch all the growth at top of trellis has nowhere to go and this can be cut back now.You have so much new growth over arch this too can be tidied and thinned out .The problem is the wisteria wants to send many branches out and really you only need one over the arch ..your options are either -

provide extra support for other branches.

remove surplus branches back to main trunk leaving a strong leader branch over arch.

if neither of these viable then sadly its too demanding a plant for its limited space and removal may be only resort.

Thanks Ray for getting back to me. I'm sorry for the delay in answering you, but have had trouble last two days trying to get connection on the net. Right where shall I begin; My archway/pergola is approx 3ft wide, approx 7ft high, and approx 12ft in length. The bulk of the leaves is above the root system, I need to train it to grow to the right of my pic across the 12ft length. It has started growing across and this is the bit that gave a few flowers this year. As I said, the flowers were tucked up under the thickness of the leaves, so I only noticed them by chance when I went looking to see if I could find any flowers. Until I get up on a ladder and go between the leaves, I don't know how many branches there are going across the top. But the bulk of leaves that you see on the pic, have never flowered, and this is the bit I really need to thin out. In amongst that density of leaves, I have a Honeysuckle that is doing well as it happens, and I'm looking to train that to the left of pic so it will trail along the garage, but the wisteria leaves at the moment are so thick, it's hard trying to get at the Honeysuckle. So once I've thinned out the wisteria, hopefully it should be easier to prune the Honeysuckle. Lol. I hope I've explained clearly enough for you to understand, because just reading this back to myself, my minds getting boggled, (and as hubby just pointed out, that's not hard to do) Lol. Thanks again Ray/Jane. :o))

No worries Linda think we re getting there as Jane says same about me so between us surprised we make any sense lol

So we have the picture a large established wisteria combined with honeysuckle being trained across one 12 ft support.From your pic youd like the wisteria to go right and the honeysuckle to go left ?

From your description safe to assume several branches over support as flowers being buried by leaf.Ideally Linda there would only have been one branch across this support and all new growth from it would be pruned as discussed.

As I ve said if you think about wisteria on a wall or dripping from pergolas each spur is trained and pruned individually to encourage flower growth.
You really only have the one support for it so multiple branches across it crowd each other out.

Surprised your honeysuckle doing so well as would have thought this wisteria leaf would smother its flowering potential.

So what to do ? For now just remove any growth thats problematic the ideal time to sort this properly will be late autumn / winter when leaf gone and growth dormant.

Its really only then that you can distinguish branches of honeysuckle and wisteria and do some severe heavy pruning.Leaving one main spur over support and pruning honeysuckle out of wisteria of course leaving the stems that are growing in the garage direction.Its a lot to ask 2 space hungry plants to do but some brave pruning will be required to achieve your plans .

Please dont worry about removing leaf now as some of these branches will need removing later anyway.The great thing is that you ve seen flowers some never flower I suspect you may also be concerned about removing the branch that flowered ..dont be as correct pruning will encourage the remaining spur and minimize all this excessive leaf growth in future.

Many think more branches = more flowers but not when they crowd each other out like this its certainly a case of less = more .

Sorry Linda my original blog was aimed at developing and establishing wisteria and what to look for - you are attempting to restore a well established one which requires a different approach initially , hope I ve clarified a few things and not made matters worse lol.

Hi Ray. Again sorry for delay in reply have had granddchildren over weekend and not had chance to get out there. Plus,have had rain which has sent everything into Turbo growth. I've just been out there to try and sort some of it out. Firstly let me say, you are right in the wisteria leaves blocking the Honeysuckle, but as it is, you can't see much of the Honeysuckle leaves, but it has actually flowered more this year than it ever has. The flowers are poking out everywhere between the wisteria leaves. I've now tried to cut some of the problem shoots, and looked underneath the trellis/pergola where I had flowers this year. There seems to be one thick branch- splits into two- then splits again into several, which all look quite woody. Some of these slightly thinner branches have weaved their way around the trellis, and then doubled back on themselves and wrapped themselves around each other(these are woody too) so they look like a plait? Hope you can understand what I'm trying to say. It's like having a piece of wool or twine, folding it in half, and then twisting it, leaving a loop on the end.(that's what these smaller woody branches have done), and I think these are the ones that have flowered this year. The bulk of what you see on last pic, I've not touched yet, as I've nearly killed myself trying to sort out shoots in the pear tree. Gee wizz! Some of them were about 6/8/10ft long Lol. and I'm amazed they were so strong, I've got two hanging baskets close by and they'd even wound themselves up through the chains. It's taken nearly all my strength to pull them from the chains, they're so tough. Anyway, weather permitting tomorrow, I'm going to tackle the bulky lot and then hopefully I'll have a better idea what's under there. THEN, roll on August! Lol. Hopefully after that I should have a view of the garden from my kitchen window. haha. Sorry I've been a pain pestering you with this, but you've been the only one to help with this problem. Thanks again Ray. I really do appreciate it.

Thanks Linda kind of you .. sure others would have commented too but thought OMG he s writing a book !

Dont worry Linda in these circumstances a good hard prune and clearance of anything thats surplus to requirements will do it good - if you can manage to leave that one stout branch over the pergola and take the others back as close to the main trunk as you can it will help.

Not pestering me I ve always felt they ve been over complicated by explanation and what seems complex pruning techniques some have got fed up waiting for them to flower and just cut them hard back - this has often prompted flowering the following year.

Its been spoilt sees no reason to change so get out there tell it whos boss scare it with loppers and say if you dont flower next year you re outta here lol

Thanks Ray. Will have another go at it tomorrow. I'm doing as you said and only removing surplus lengths. I'll leave the rest till next month, and then cut back a bit harder. Then, weather permitting or not, I'll do the rest in Feb. At the end of the day, I've got plenty of time to get flowers. I've already waited seven years. Lol. No, seriously, I'm heading in the right direction now, where as before, I didn't have a clue what I was doing. So hopefully now in May and with the help I've had from you, I'll see my beloved plant BLOOM out of control. haha. If you don't mind, I'd like to keep you up to date on its progress. I'll take more pics at a later date, and if you wouldn't mind, telling me how I'm doing, and/or whether I'll need to prune it more. Fingers crossed, I'll be able to upload pics of WISTERIA in BLOOM in May/June. Lol. Thanks again Ray. If you were close by, and with Janes permission, I'd give you a kiss, sadly you'll have to make do with these. xxxxxx and for Jane. xxxxxx

Ha ha Linda too kind I really havent done anything to warrant it and you ve not had any flowers yet but come next spring .. Janes permission ? lol Oh be glad you live some distance shes upstairs packing me a case as we speak ..

My van went through a man hole cover failed its MOT and the drain blocked and flooded the drive Jane happy to send me anywhere lol

Best wishes to you Ray and Jane xxx