Why does my wisteria look dead?

Hmmmm, dosen't sound too good, does it? I see you're from the north, did you get a very cold winter? This winter was supposedly the coldest for 18 years. It might have caused the wisteria to die. I'm concerned there have been no leaves. The frost can cause buds to drop off. Presumable this is an old wisteria, with its roots in the ground?

Wisteria's do need a good prune at least once a year and preferably after flowering too. Otherwise they can literally stop growing.

I personally would be tempted to leave it til next spring. If nothing happens again, then I'm afraid it has died for sure. You could do a little trim now, if you wanted, see if that yields any leaves.

There was on old wisteria at my old house, from the 1930's I think but other than that, I don't know how long wisteria's actually usually last for. Maybe a search on the internet will help. There are a few Wisteria Societies around who may be able to give more info. Good luck!

We too have a Wisteria that looks very dead. We have been watching it for weeks for any sign of life. We decided to give it a rather harsh pruning as we found a couple of little buds down close to the ground. Ours is only about five years old so no idea why it has done this. We live on the west coast so certainly don't get extremely cold winters.