Wisteria Finally going to bloom.....long story

When we bought our home 11 years ago, I was given a 1 gal wisteria to grow up and over our storage shed in the back yard.
It grew and grew and grew, and covered one whole side of the shed and half the roof.....but never bloomed.
I root pruned it HARD. I doust it with SuperPhos. I cursed at it, threatening its very existance, and still no blooms.
Two yaers ago I bought another one (in bloom when purchased)....this one I planted on the other side of the shed. My plan was to grow this one up and over and than to remove the origonal one which refused to bloom.
Well yesterday we had a freak wind storm blow through....heavy rains and high winds. The wind caught the older vine and bent it back and off the shed roof....so I ran out with pruners and saw in hand. I figured "Okay I'll cut it back before it does damage to the shed". Well to my great surprise I counted 17 4 inch blooms buds growing on some of the upper branches/vines.
So here I am in gusting winds and driving rain up on a ladder securing this %$^#& vine back to the shed, knowing that any minute either the vines are gonna snap destroying the blooms, or I'm gonna get tossed off the ladder. Neither happened.....the vine is again secured to the shed, and I have 17 blooms to look forward to. FINALLY
I just don;t kow how my poor shed is going to handle having 2 wisteria vines growing on it.....poor thing just may collapse eventually.
I'll post pix when the buds finally open.
Thanks for reading this oh so long a post......I just had to share with those that might be able to understand my joy. :-)

Marc

Yes!! Just when you least expected it....nature....ain't she sweet?

I believe whole heartedly it was the fear of death that finally got it to set bloom buds. :-)
I should have threatened it years ago. LOL

OK, tough guy. : ~ )

maybe it was trying to tell you it was lonely. hehe

congrats on blooms. i would of been out there securing it myself.


i have been there and done that but up on the roof of my house securing tarps last year when a tree fell through my kitchen. me a woman 5 ft 1 out in pouring rain on top of my house with hammer nails and a 20 ft tarp.

my daughter said she was not coming up there to help me as at the time my dear hubby was out of town.

so i know how you feel being up on that ladder.

Oh dear! Your a brave brave woman.

Bravo for you RikerBear! I had a white one trained on a humongous pine tree. This tree was so large, it would have taken three men to join hands to be able to reach around it. That wisteria grew and grew and grew and put huge deep dents in that big old pine tree, but that sucker never bloomed. After cursing that vine for all those years (probably 12) it still never bloomed. We sold the house with tree, vine and all. It took the new owners about a year to cut tree and wisteria both down.

(Maybe I don't know all the right words to tell to a wisteria vine like you do, huh? LOL)

Kay

Hey-Good for you Riker. That's gotta be exciting. Makes me worry about mine! I guess just foilage is OK though huh!

J

Thanks guys....I just knew you all would understand how important this was to me. :-)
Sorry you didn;t get to see yours bloom Kay :-(
And J, foliage is good too yes.....at least for awhile. Hope you get to see yours bloom one of these yaesr too.

RikerBear -- Would 4x4 framework not be sturdy enough? Would like to get a long-lived flowering vine growing for shade in a full sun area, right outside the side garage door. Don't want to attach the 4x4 frame to the house/garage or city permits become an issue. A tree right there might block the hot water solar panel on the garage roof. But when Gaylams reports dents in a huge pine tree...maybe wisteria is not the way to go. Do have a night blooming cereus near that door and I s'pose the wisteria would want to take that over, too? The only vine I've got going now is the annual sweet peas plants weeks ago near the shed. Ready for something more substantial! The Blue Passion Flower vine I ordered was DOA.

How about a photo of the vine and shed...don't need to wait til the blossoms pop!

I doubt it......these vines get pretty thick and are OH SO strong. I fully expect my little shed to get ripped to shreds over the years. I've seen these vines destroy porches, house roofs, and down right kill trees.
I'll get a pic for you....provided I can get home before sundown.

Congrats
could you come here and threaten mine

opps too late
I cut down to the ground.....

oops.....I would have been more than willing to travel. :-)

This was so funny! Sounds like my Cardinal trumpet vine(hummingbird vine), now 10+ years old. I root pruned, used Jerry Bakers' idea of epsom salts on roots, built a trellis for it to hang over, as was told it had to go up and over, threatened it with nasty words!. Well, that durned thing is out of here this spring, but before I cut it down, I'll check for buds.

This message was edited Mar 22, 2005 5:57 PM

I am ROTF! I think it was lonely too and was going to post that but someone beat me! LOL

I have a white and a purple. I grow them up 2x4s next to my deck and cut them back at the end of the year. The end goal is to build a nice pergola above the deck or some sort of open roof for them. I am starting to think a nice 4x4 would be better.

Try the %(^(*&% words again and shake the saw and pruners at it. :-)
Good Luck!
I'll keep my fingers crossed for your finding buds.

Thanks, will keep looking!

Trumpets do like HOT weather, so wait till things warm up a bit before you make your final Cut