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ledbury

By Ledbury

United Kingdom Gb

I moved to this house last year and would like to train the wisteria here which looks a bit of a mess, when pruning out branches should I keep the old strong branches and cut out the smaller ones or the other way round, your input would be most helpful,
<y thanks Terri



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Answers

 

In theory, Wisteria should be pruned twice year, once in mid February and again in August. In practice, for instance if its grown in a large pot, it can be pruned back at other times to keep it in bounds.

As these are large plants (left to their own devices, they reach 35 feet high by easily 12 feet wide), in a space the size of yours, some rigorous pruning twice a year will be necessary. More information here https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=242

29 Apr, 2017

 

I used to have a wisteria sinensis in a fairly small space but managed to get great displays from it and to train it reasonably comfortably. As Bamboo has suggested, pruning back hard twice a year is essential and if you are lucky it can produce a second display of flowers. But it is necessary to do some occasional small-scale trimming as well otherwise the weight of branch and foliage can become a bit too much.

I used to find that cutting back the main branches was a little bit counter-productive unless they were getting into the fixtures and fittings on the house and outbuildings, because it would only cause more vigorous new growth. I found the best way to train and encourage the plant into new area was to identify one or two new tendril growths, train these and cut back the others.

1 May, 2017

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