It's worth the wait; This Wisteria was planted in 2002, moved into a half whiskey barrel the next year. And this Spring it finally bloomed for us. A mesmerizing beauty it's.
Chinese Wisteria 1st Blooms
Very pretty, looks like you put a lot of thought into where it should be and have been rewarded.
I did not realize it took them so long to bloom
Sandra
What beautiful blooms and a lovely setting!
I am amazed it is growing in a 1/2 whiskey barrel and must ask if it needs a lot of water?
That is an excellent way to contain the roots although I have heard the Chinese wisteria is not quite as invasive... pod
Wow! It sure looks happy.
Sandra; Wisterias in general take at least 5 years of age to produce blosoms. And yes, the Asian kind; Japanese and Chinese are very agressive growers. Their cousins the native Wisteria are lot more constrained. Each blooms slightly different but all are beautiful.
Pod; these are very tolerance of drought. Though, in pots I water them as often as they need. I fill the big half whiskey barrel with other "filler plants" such as trailing vines, these help me gaze the need of the water requirement. I siphon a hose to our irrigation system's main valve with stop-cock. I simply turn the stop-cock on/off when I water the garden - to water my container-plants. FYI; my Chinese Wisteria is trained as a standard (tree-like). It will bloom again in Autumn (as it was signaling me last year). The Japanese blosoms are already spent in mid spring. But the American "Amethyst Falls" is now forming buds. BTW; I've all 3 kinds. Those that are on the ground needs lots more care with pruning, and pulling out roots that ran rampant in the vicinity. I've two white one climbing up my porch which haven't bloomed yet.
This message was edited Apr 5, 2007 8:25 PM
Looking forward to more delightful photos... Thanks for the info, pod
Yes Lily - more pix please. Your grounds look beautiful !
wow...awesome pic of that wisteria in bloom.
:) Thank you all. Here is another view of the Chinese Wisteria.
Lily what is that grassy plant to the right of your wisteria? I like it with those little flowers.
.... and I am curious what size pot you have that wisteria in. What beautiful scenery - on the water's edge.
Jeri11; the grass-like flowers bush is scotchbrooms, it's in full bloom this time of year. And it's hardy in our zones.
N2birds; the pot is a half whiskey barrel. Wisteria has a currious habit. When the root is bound (in this case it's). It will try to send out long strand root off to the size in search of self proliferation. I cut those off, and it's said to stimulate the plant to flower even more. (keeping them on the dry side, also helps). I only fertilize my Wisteria with tripple phosphate, no nitrogen for wisteria, unless if you would like to spend lot of time to prune off new growths.
That is very intersting what you do with the roots. I have heard that if you cut into the roots, it helps them to bloom (the ones in the ground). So, there may be some truth to that since yours blooms so well. I purchased one about 5 years ago that said it was a 9 year old plant and it never bloomed. We recently cut it down when we tore our deck out, and there are still shoots coming up. Maybe I should dig one up and plant it up like yours and see what happens. It was extremely invasive where it was.
N2birds;
It's known that certain plants when faced with advert conditions, e.g. Injuries, fires, storm damages etc. There is some sort of intrinsic mechanism being released so that they can self-propagate. Apparently Wisteria falls into these groups of plants. Perhaps, that explains why they do seldom bloom when they're in fertile garden soil. Drough, also a factor to induce wisteria to bloom (once established). A case in point. Remember our last year drought? One of our neighbor's wisteria bloomed its heart out. One wouldn't believe one eyes! I'll see if I can find the picture of this particular one to post it soon.
I found the pic.! This Wisteria bloomed profusely (more so compared to years past), after severe drought.
wow...think I will withhold the water just a tad. Awesome!
Sounds like Wisteria abuse is the answer... LOL
I have always loved Wisteria but after seeing it kill some magnificent trees, I have resisted getting a plant. I will have to give your pot method a try. Thanks...
This message was edited Apr 6, 2007 7:25 PM
Don't tell DEQ but Jim dumped oil on mine and it just laughted at him.
I recently purchased a Chinese Wisteria but have not planted it yet. I'm hoping it will do well on this rustic arbor I built a couple of years ago. Do they like a lot of sun?
Early_bloomer
Wow I love that arbor. Love the wisteria too. I have planted several but they are a little too young to bloom. My white one had one bloom so I at least know it is a white one.
Is the white as fragrant as the purples?
love the arbor!
Early_Bloomer; I love your garden setting, Wisteria is known to pull down many a structure. I hope that yours will stand up to the test. Your garden is lovely, oooh yahhh, I just love it. Wisteria do enjoy basking in sunshine. The Wisteria above, in some season. I've noticed it only bloomed on the sunny side. For those of us loving these vines. Training them into "tree-like" specimen is the way to go. We can enjoy the blosoms without a lot of fuss.
Ordinary garden soil will serve the purpose for these potting. It's dense, retains water longer (and useful in drought-treatment, or like Pod's has mentioned, "wisteria abuse" lol). And it helps stabilize the "tree" against winds and such. Good lucks, and enjoy everyone.
Thanks Lily. It sounds like the arbor is the perfect place for the wisteria. It should hold up. I built it out of locust trees I cut on my property. Locust was always the farmers wood of choice for fence posts in this area because it lasts for many years without rotting.
early_bloomer
my aunt has a wisteria that the previous owner had planted as a twisted tree, so it cant encroach on anything, and it is absolutley beautiful this year. How do you do that? Wisteria here in AR can totally take over, so if I plant any, it has to be under control. Thanks for any advice.
I'd love to train some as a tree too. A number of folks here have them trained as bushes, so I guess its just a matter of time before the bush turns into a tree. Is this correct?
carol
Maisied, Carol;
Wisteria "vines" are easy to sort of braid them together as a standard when young. (A tree-like structure with many weavy stalks). In order to make a single tree out of any bush. You'd need to select one desirable trunk and cut off ALL other side growth. In time it will look like a tree. Maisied; Wisteria are very vigorous growers. (As noted above). The only way to contain it, is literally CONTAIN it in pots. They root easily too, so discard your pruning branches or they just root in place where you left them.
Carol, to speed up the process of having Wisteria to bloom early with your new plant. Try to propagate your 'new' plant from a mature specimen in your neighborhood who is willing to share a few cuttings. They root at any time of year from cutting (like that of willows). Have fun, and good lucks.
Kim
Dona,
I'll post some more info. on this Wisteria's development. :-)
The wisteria prolific blooms in the spring; only yielded few successful seedpods. Apparently its main proliferation mean is via the spreading of the root-system. But, since it's confined in a pot. ... there you've it. You'll have success keeping it in check.
I love wisteria, I bit the bullet last fall and bought a pink one, it didn't flower this year, and I'm working on keeping it a tree, hoping I do a good job at that. I hope to see blooms on it next year though.
I'll bump this thread back up, so if anyone is interested to discuss about different type of Wisterias.
Kathy_Ann; we've come along way. Wow, forgive me, but I didn't know anything about anyone here in MSF then. Now, I feel like we're all connected. :-) How is your Wisteria faring this summer?
Kim
How's my pink one doing? it's doing great, but desperately needs to be staked, it fell over, and is growing sideways now, I asked dh to stake it several times, but he keeps forgetting and I keep forgetting to remind him, my poor wisteria is growing sideways now, If I don't hurry and stake it , it will stay like that.
Ah, then you'll have a semi-cascade specimen! The drought that we shared, would do well for all the wisteria. The Japanese Wisteria (Dark purple/blue blooms) that belongs to my neighbor already signal a great blooms for next year. It has been showing scattered blooms for weeks now. Then in the springs, it will explode.
I hope mine does as well.
My above Chinese Wisteria gave me one single bloom this summer (after the very 1st flush in Spring). But here is the above Japanese Wisteria which belongs to my neighbor is putting on a pretty good show at present.
This message was edited Sep 5, 2007 10:50 AM
The 'tree' form Wisteria...
Abuse is the word. Here is mine that was several years old and never bloomed. Then we got a hurricane force winds that split the trunk and you can see my ducttape handiwork. My local nursery said it could not be saved. Then to my amazement the following spring it bloomed profusely for the first and only time, that was 2004 and have only had about 2 blooms since. I have done the no cutting back, cutting in the fall, cutting in the winter, cutting in spring and in summer, no season seems to make a difference, this plant just has a mind of its own. I hope this is the year of blooms again as it is a beauty.
Here it is in bloom. I read somewhere that a plant that won't produce may produce if traumatized. The fellow even suggested rolling up newspapers and spanking the plant if necessary.
They are beautiful, seem to do best when left completely alone, unfortunately I can't do that around here. I hope I get some blooms on mine this year. I have decided that my DH needed to pull up my regular wisteria cause we have to keep them trimmed where they are located now and they never bloom, He attempted to dig one up wth the tractor and couldn't do it, even put a chain around it to pull it out of the ground, it wouldn't budge. It's about 6 years old. So now one of the three is deformed completely, but we left the other two intact. If we can get that front one out of the ground I may be able to leave the other two alone so they can bloom. That front one was growing over the faucet and I had to keep it cleared from snakes, so I was constantly trimming it.
I know a lady in Searcy that planted hers by a dead tree that had been chopped down but still had about l0 feet of tree there, that wisteria grew up that tree trunk and made the most beautiful tree I had ever seen. It blooms profusely every year, and she never has to prune it cause it's so high up that it doesn't get in the way of anything else.
wish mine were like that.
kathy
Me as well, mine gets in the pines and dogwoods and can't have that. I have read about the hard and soft pruning and tried those at different seasons, but nothing seems to work, the only time it bloomed was after it was split in that storm.