Bad, bad, Wisteria vine!

Spring is coming to N. Illinois and I am looking at my 2 monster, out of control, Wisteria vines. They have never bloomed in the 10 years I've had them. They're as thick as tree trunks at the bottom. Should I cut them back to the ground and let them start over? I'll give them one more season to behave and then it's spade time. Any suggestions, before the grim reaper is called?

Diana

Were they grown from seed or started from cuttings? Seed grown ones can take many years to bloom from seed, as much as 10 yrs or so. Ones grown from cuttings ought to bloom within a couple years as long as they have enough sun and aren't pruned at the wrong time of year. They need to be in full sun to bloom, so if yours is shaded too much that could be why they don't bloom. And they bloom on old wood, so if you prune them too late in the year or too early in the spring then they won't bloom either.

They were both purchased in 2 gal. pots from a nursery in 1998. I only cut off the crazy ones that reach out and attached themselves to a neighboring Lilac tree, which is north of the vine and not blocking the sun. The vines are growing on a 9 ft tall wood arbor (sp?) and is on the south side of the house and in full sun. It's just a monster. I swear it tries to grab me when I walk under it! It's snowing today, uck!, but I will take a picture of the beast and post it sometime this weekend.

Diana

I'm not sure why it's not blooming then. One more possibility--are you fertilizing it? They can get by without much fertilizer, so if you're giving them a little more than they need then they might put out lots of green growth and not much flowers. The only other thing I can think of is I wonder if wisteria can have the same problem as some hydrangeas do in your zone where a late freeze can zap the buds. I honestly don't know if that's a possibility with wisteria or not, I know it's a problem with hydrangeas and I've never heard about it with wisteria, but since they also bloom on old wood I wonder if it's a possibility.

I know they live about 200 years so your vine may be on its' own schedule.

I have heard you can cut some of the roots to force it to bloom, as a last result. Do you know what kind it is? A big wisteria like that is worth ay least one more try!
Two on one arbor? That must be one full arbor!!! LOL
Try cutting a third of the roots, but not to many of the main shoots. Now is the time to do it. If that dosesn't work remove one and try with only the one next year.

Here's a picture of the beast. I haven't fertilized it in a couple years and I did try trimming the roots two years ago. I don't know what variety it is. It's been so long ago. You can see it's three feet or more above the arbor. It's run out of places to go.

I have heard from a friend here on Dave's that Wisteria grow male and female plants, and only the females bloom. I don't know if this is correct or not, but I trust the source. Maybe you have yourself two males!

There are a number of plants that do have the sexes in separate plants, but wisteria is not one of them. http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060527/REALESTATE07/60525005/0/realestate Even if it did come in separate sexes, it's fruits not flowers that only occur on the females. The males have to produce flowers or else they wouldn't have anything to pollinate the females with. So you'd always get flowers, you just wouldn't get seeds if you had plants that were the same sex.

We have wisteria all over Summerville. The ones that do best are in vacant lots with lousy soil, little rain and no fertilizer.

A lot of plants that are fat and happy in their environment won't bloom for that very reason. Plants bloom primarily to reproduce itself so by stressing it, it may causes it to bloom. Essentially, if certain conditions are not met, the plant will turn on a gene that says reproduce.

This seems to be true for a number of woody vines that I have.

X

Ive heard of root cutting the plants to induce bloom. But, maybe as art-n-garden says you just have 2 boys!

to me a bad wisteria is one that spreads and suckers and comes up in your driveway and grabs you by the ankle and trips you and makes you fall on your face. Thats what I have. They have no problem blooming though. And as soon as they show their face I know where the RoundUp goes! To me that is BAD wisteria.

X. has said it all about Wisterias. What to know, and what not to do to avoid montrous vines that won't bloom.

I've forced this to bloom two years in a row, 4 more are forming buds. All in pots culture so I can coax them to bloom. Those in rich garden soil, and abundant moisture? We can wait until the cows come home, and still no bloom.

Wisterias don't have different sexes...and even if they did, both sexes would bloom but only the females would set seeds. So gender or lack thereof has nothing to do with why wisterias won't bloom. I think Xerantheum is on the right track, if wisteria has too much love (fertilizer, water, etc) then they put out lots of green growth but not many flowers. And all the other usual suspects (grown from seed, not enough sun, pruned at the wrong time) have been ruled out, so I think it must be that.

I have a wisteria corner in which I have three wisterias planted in the ground, and they all bloom very well. I also have two in containers, and those bloom reliably as well. I think all of them are grafted, named varieties, which I bought in nurseries.

As ecrane said, if you got two that were started from seeds, they can take up to ten years to bloom. Trimming the roots or shocking the vines in any way can easily delay flowering by as much as two years. Peter Valder's book on wisteria is very informative and talks about this and what wisteria needs to bloom well. Full sun was at the top of his list. Careful pruning at the right time of year is also important (after flowering).

This message was edited Mar 25, 2008 10:25 AM

The wisterias of mine that are planted in the ground get plenty of water and even some fertilizer in the summer, but the wisteria roots have nitrogen fixing capability via nodules attached to the roots so they don't need that element. Adding potassium to the soil may help with blooms.

The wisterias of mine that are planted in containers get regular watering and some fertilizer as well.

I noticed that the wisteria I have all bloom at slightly different times, probably due to their being different species as I have both W. sinensis and W. floribunda.

I have two of this double-flowered one -- one in a very large container and one in the ground, and they are both flowering now. I think yours could still bloom in the spring once your weather warms up a bit.

It is also possible and you may want to look into the possibility that it is too cold there for wisteria blooms. Ecrane may be right that the buds get zapped by a late freeze. I just checked in Plant Files, and it says W. sinensis is hardy to Zone 5a so you might be right on the cusp. It also says that W. floribunda is hardy to Zone 4a so perhaps that is the more cold-hardy one. I've forgotten now since it has been a while since I read Peter's book.

Clare - That is gorgeous! Do you know the name of it? I couldn't find a pic of anything that looked like it in Plant Flies. Have you ever tried to root a cutting? Thanks, Samantha

She trips me, grabs me and gets caught in my hair. I wouldn't doubt if our cold, windy springs have something to do with it not blooming also. We do have very rich black soil here too. I'll check out Mr. Valder's book. Maybe there's something in it regarding the PH requirements for Wisteria. I have a test kit and will test the soil near her. Maybe acid or lime added will make a difference.

Thank you all for the information.

Diana

If your pH was off, I would think the plant itself would be looking not as healthy as it could--either it wouldn't be growing well or the leaves (when it has them) would look chlorotic or a little sickly. I can't see the plant looking totally healthy and growing like crazy if the pH was off, I really think you'd see other symptoms.

Thanks, Samantha. I like it too. Here's the link to it in PlantFiles: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/55657/ There is only one double-flowered wisteria, and it is W. floribunda 'Violacea Plena." I'm afraid I don't have the time or patience to root stuff anymore. The two that I have are grafted plants.

Diana, when I get some time, I'll check the book to see what it says about soil ph, but I agree with Ecrane that it is probably not your soil. Here's Peter Valder's book if you are interested: http://www.amazon.com/Wisterias-Comprehensive-Guide-Peter-Valder/dp/0881923184/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206393949&sr=1-1 I really would try a little potassium when the weather warms.

Clare - Thanks for the link - I totally understand about rooting things - I have very little luck, too! I put the double-flowering wisteria on my wish list! Thanks, Samantha

You're probably right about the PH. She has no trouble with leafing out healthy leaves.

Thanks Clare for the link. I will try a little potasium too.

Did anyone see the wedding scene in Miami CSI last night. The place was dripping with Wisteria. I'm jealous.

Yeah, I did, but I have a sneaky suspicion that they were plastic flowers. I couldn't see the purple up close, and the white didn't look real, but I was only half paying attention to the television and half to the dishes. I'm not sure how well wisteria would really flower in Miami, Florida anyway.

This is my little "Wisteria Corner." W. sinensis 'Cooke's Purple' is on the left; W. floribunda 'Violacea Plena' is on the right; and, W. floribunda 'Honbeni' is behind them. These are the ones that I have in the ground here.

I checked Peter's book, and he says the same things that we all did: full sun, regular watering, pruning at the appropriate time, fertilizing once in the spring and in the summer, and patience if the plants are young. You could very well be having zone issues with yours.

I just read that they (Wisteria) need acid soil. My soil is PH7, almost neutral. That's probably why my leaves don't turn yellow, but it doesn't bloom. I need to bring it down a little. The article recommended adding aluminum sulfate to help bring the soil to the acid side. Apparently aluminum sulfate works pretty fast. It dissolves into the soil quickly. Wisteria's PH needs were put in the same category as blueberries, Rhodos and azaleas. I can also add some pine needles as mulch to help lower the PH. It's worth a try. I have plenty of pine trees in the yard.

They do fine in neutral soil too. If your soil were really alkaline then you might have problems but I had slightly alkaline soil at my old house and my wisteria bloomed like a champ. And if your plant was suffering from the pH being too high, you'd either see some chlorosis in the leaves, or it wouldn't grow as well, I think you'd see both those things happening before you saw it affect the blooms. Bringing down your pH won't hurt the plant but I doubt if that'll be what makes it bloom

I agree:-) The soil here is definitely not on the acidic side, and they bloom great. Acidity of the soil doesn't affect blooming usually. I have mine in everything from MiracleGro in pots to clay soil in the ground.

We have Wisteria growing all over here in VA. it grows up and over the walls of the interstate everywhere you look. some of it is even growing from the ditches beside the roadways.
My sister had it in her back yard covering her back fence for years. All she did to it was trim it in the fall to keep it from becoming overgrown. no fertilizer, no checking the soil, nothing. maybe it is just dumb luck, but they really seem to be easy to grow with little care.

okay, I have a dumb newbie question again.... (sorry!)

Do ALL Wisteria bloom first, and then get leaves.... or is it the opposite?

I have wisteria I transplanted from pot to ground last year. It bloomed 2 yrs ago, nothing last year (it was in a pot in the shade) and now this year I have leafs, but no blooms yet?! I thought it was supposed to bloom and then leaf out? but cant remember....

thanks! Anjl

I came across this online about Wisteria.
And now we come to the last and least understood part of getting this plant to bloom.

Folks, it is all about pruning wisteria. The trick with the wisteria tree and indeed vine wisteria is to prune them hard. In the case of the wisteria tree, you want to maintain the globe shape and not allow the branches to get too long. So, during the summer months when the vines start to really stretch out – prune them off to where you like the look of the leafy growth.


And in the fall, just around your frost date or winter onset when the leaves will fall, prune the plant back to five to six shoots per main branch. In other words, the first five or six shoots off each branch are left and the rest of the long branch is removed.

These in turn are cut back to about six inches long leaving five or six buds on each of these branches. You wind up with a short stubby (rather ugly looking) wisteria tree. Much like the open framework of an umbrella.

And the nice part of growing a wisteria tree is that if you don’t kill it over the winter, it will grow like stink next year so any mistakes you made this year will disappear.

Good luck!
I know this was primarily about the tree but it did mention vine too so perhaps cruise the web about pruning.

Anjl, found this for you too.
As a general rule the Asiatic spieces flower in the Spring on the previous years wood. The cultivars of W. sinensis tend to flower before the leaves emerge, the cultivars of W. floribunda tend to flower after the foliage has started to emerge. The American spieces flower in the early summer on same years wood.


hope this helps!

My soil is acidic, rich & loamy, we run a yearly sun deficit here in the Pacific Northwest, and I have never fertilized this one. This is finishing up with flowering:

Lavender4ever, all wisteria is classified as a vine, but they can be trained and staked into standards (tree form) so the pruning advice that you got from the Internet is applicable to all wisteria vines. This is a good link about pruning wisteria: http://www.plantamnesty.org/pruning_topics/pt_wisteria.htm Most wisterias do bloom as the foliage is emerging, but it is true that the flowers are slightly ahead of the foliage for the species W. sinensis.

Katye, that is a beautiful one.

It should also be noted that it is helpful if you know what kind of wisteria you have as they can bloom at different times. This one is Wisteria venusta. It is blooming now, but it also blooms late summer/early fall.

Clare - thanks. It is getting a haircut as soon as possible.

Lavender, Thanks....guess I'll watch and wait and throw some banaba peels in the soil and see what happens! :o)

Pastime I have the same problem will try to root trim but if this year no bloom out it comes

I went out today to do the dirty deed on my two Wisterias. The big one that tries to grab me is cut back. When I went over to the second one I noticed light purple and white buds on it. Eureka! It's never done that before. Please tell me those are the beginnings of a flower!

Well, since the leaf buds would be green I think you're in luck!

oh...mine too...only two flower spikes so far...but I'll take any blloms I can get :oD!!

I'm glad youre bloomed too!
AnjL