wisteria bloom question

I have a Chinese wisteria that I planted 5 years ago. It bloomed heavily for the first time last spring and then a light bloom this spring. Now I have a single bloom and wonder if my vigorous pruning has interfered with the spring bloom and it is trying to make up for lost time. It is on a large arbor and sends up shoots sticking straight up from the top of the arbor in all directions. It looks like a crazy bad hair day, so I prune it every week. Now I am wondering how to distinguish the shoots that will become more leaves from those that will become blooms. They all look the same to me. I can't not prune it because it is so visible from the house and looks terrible without its weekly "haircut". The new bloom seems to be on a shoot that is new growth. I think that the only reason that I actually got a bloom is that I fell behind in my pruning efforts.

The best time to prune them is right after they bloom, then later in the season if there are a few branches that are getting out of control then you can trim those but don't do too much, I think they bloom on old wood so the growth that it's doing now is where next year's flowers will be. If it's getting too out of control and you have to prune it so much that you don't get flowers, you might consider replacing it with one of the tamer American native wisterias.

My wisteria grows like a lunatic. I don't think not pruning would be an option.

I expected that it would bloom on old wood, but the current bloom seems to be at the tip of a soft new shoot.

I doubt that I could get it out of it's current spot as it is growing below an arbor that has a huge stone wall on either side and a walkway under it. I wish that I had started with a tamer cultivar. I don't water or fertilize, but still it grows about 2 ft a week.

Sorry mate wrong plant in the wrong place......you have to put it where it can have it's way! all that chopping to restrain it will only get worse as it matures they tend to eat houses over here! and it can never give you a show with all that snipping ....sorry they are not a delicate grower...part of my front fence was covered in 4 years ....that is about 50 ft....and I trim off the new long shoots in Summer....it always turns on a massive show try something more suitable.

I think they'll occasionally put out blooms on some newer wood--the bulk of their blooming is in the spring, and that's the ones that are on old wood, but I know some people's plants will put out an occasional flower later in the year too which sounds like what yours is doing, and I guess those flowers could be on newer wood. But if you prune too late in the year then you'll miss out on the big spring show. Chrissy's right though, if you really want to enjoy wisteria you need to put it somewhere that it'll have room to spread and you won't have to constantly be cutting it. But if that's not an option, then I guess you're stuck with constant pruning and probably not too many flowers.

Yes that is right I get a huge show in the Spring ...a wall of colour ...and it spot flowers all through the Summer. I have only chucked a handful of blood and bone at it (maybe once a season) I don't even water it. This neglect is on purpose as I read somewhere that you should neglect it and threaten it with an axe if it won't flower. :)