Bob Hobden wrote:
"Mike Lyle" wrote after...
Christine Rowe wrote:
Can anyone tell me how to make a wisteria into a standard tree,do
I
leave the lower shoots on it until it has reached the required
height
or do I cut them back as it's growing?

Any help would be much appreciated
TIA Chris

I don't think a wistaria will stand up on its own: standards I've
seen aren't really standards in that way. They need a big, and
very
durable, metal umbrella thing to support them. I suppose it would
need to be made of real wrought iron so it wouldn't rust away in
the
first twenty years, and that's expensive, if you can even get it.
I'd
take out side shoots till the plant reaches the level you want.

That is true at first, but once the stem has thickened and become
tree like, which does take quite a few years, then it will stand up
on it's own, seen it.
Personally I would treat like any standard and leave some leaf up
the
stem until it is tall enough to be stopped, the extra leaf = extra
growth. Just keep the side shoots within bounds with pruning.

Interesting: must be a wonderful sight. How old does it have to be to
support itself? Do the branches on a mature specimen hold themselves
up too?

I wonder if a compromise solution might be to grow it through a
suitable small tree, which I suppose it might eventually kill,
leaving the wistaria on its own, like the tropical strangling fig.

--
Mike.