Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
pruning wisteria in late Spring?
Hello all,
I have a (sometimes) lovely wisteria vine growing in my side yard, here in Arlington, VA. I built what we call our garbage gazebo, an open structure with an 8' high slatted top and planted the wisteria to grow up and over the structure. Like many others, I waited patiently for the vine to become established and finally flower. Two years ago I had beautiful blooms. Plentiful, heady fragrance. Then I made the mistake of either pruning too hard or at the wrong time so that last year I had virtually no bloom. This year I simply left the vine alone and got blooms but they were hidden in the center of the plant, almost out of view. Now I have this mass of lush green growth, well beyond what I want in the space allotted. I know that the proper way to prune is to do a partial pruning in late August with a final harder prune in late winter. But will I cause major damage to next year's bloom if I cut back on the vine now, especially on the vines that are cascading down, forcing you to walk under or around the mass? My thinking is that I should go ahead and trim back pretty hard, even now, just to regain the space and that I'll be ok in terms of next year's bloom so long as I do the further pruning at the proper time and leave the proper number of buds on this year's growth. Any help appreciated. Michael |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
pruning wisteria in late Spring?
"news.verizon.net" wrote: Hello all, I have a (sometimes) lovely wisteria vine growing in my side yard, here in Arlington, VA. I built what we call our garbage gazebo, an open structure with an 8' high slatted top and planted the wisteria to grow up and over the structure. Like many others, I waited patiently for the vine to become established and finally flower. Two years ago I had beautiful blooms. Plentiful, heady fragrance. Then I made the mistake of either pruning too hard or at the wrong time so that last year I had virtually no bloom. This year I simply left the vine alone and got blooms but they were hidden in the center of the plant, almost out of view. Now I have this mass of lush green growth, well beyond what I want in the space allotted. I know that the proper way to prune is to do a partial pruning in late August with a final harder prune in late winter. But will I cause major damage to next year's bloom if I cut back on the vine now, especially on the vines that are cascading down, forcing you to walk under or around the mass? My thinking is that I should go ahead and trim back pretty hard, even now, just to regain the space and that I'll be ok in terms of next year's bloom so long as I do the further pruning at the proper time and leave the proper number of buds on this year's growth. Any help appreciated. IME, you can't over-prune wisteria - the harder you prune it, the better it flowers. I have seen large established wisteria vines with big, thick trunks pruned down to just a few stems in midseason to accomodate painting, remodels, etc., and they have come back the next season in full force to bloom profusely. Go ahead and prune away - you are only just a few weeks ahead of the recommended June (after bloom) pruning season for these vines, anyway. pam - gardengal |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
pruning wisteria in late Spring?
On Sun, 18 May 2003 16:04:36 +0000, news.verizon.net wrote:
Hello all, I have a (sometimes) lovely wisteria vine growing in my side yard, here in Arlington, VA. I built what we call our garbage gazebo, an open structure with an 8' high slatted top and planted the wisteria to grow up and over the structure. Like many others, I waited patiently for the vine to become established and finally flower. Two years ago I had beautiful blooms. Plentiful, heady fragrance. Then I made the mistake of either pruning too hard or at the wrong time so that last year I had virtually no bloom. This year I simply left the vine alone and got blooms but they were hidden in the center of the plant, almost out of view. Now I have this mass of lush green growth, well beyond what I want in the space allotted. I know that the proper way to prune is to do a partial pruning in late August with a final harder prune in late winter. But will I cause major damage to next year's bloom if I cut back on the vine now, especially on the vines that are cascading down, forcing you to walk under or around the mass? My thinking is that I should go ahead and trim back pretty hard, even now, just to regain the space and that I'll be ok in terms of next year's bloom so long as I do the further pruning at the proper time and leave the proper number of buds on this year's growth. Any help appreciated. Michael Generally I tend to shape them in the spring after they bloom and do my major thinning in the winter when I can see into the shrub. I would think that you could get away with shaping it now and regain your space. I have 'blown' the blooms off a wisteria once with a high nitrogen fertilizer. I fertilized with straight 16 ( 16,16,16 ) in the begining of march ( a bit heavy mind you ).Feeding with fertilisers that have high nitrogen content will encourage excessive vegetative leaf-growth at the expense of flower production. Hence the lush green growth with few blooms in the center. This is also true with the laburnum ( golden chain tree ). I blew the flowers off a customers tree this year when I was fertilizing the bedding plants at the base of the tree. Thankfuly it was a non-damaging accident and a learning moment for me and my customer.... 80) A tip to the wise about your wisteria. I have see what a mature wisteria can do to houses/gazebos due to it's shear weight. It has been reccomened to me be a nursery owner that the structure you train a wisteria to should be able to hold 700 pounds at least. At first I thought she was being a bit dramatic about it, untill I got a call about a wisteria clean up. It was about 25 feet tall 7 feet wide, connected to the side of a house and it came down in a wind storm. It ripped a lot a siding off and some gutters also. The dump weight was 2600 pounds!!! Yes a ton of wisteria. -- http://yard-works.netfirms.com |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
late spring pruning of roses issue: prune how hard? | Roses | |||
How late is too late? | North Carolina | |||
Artemisia 'Powis Castle' - late or late? | Gardening | |||
Artemisia 'Powis Castle' - late or late? | Gardening | |||
How late is too late? | Ponds |