Hi

I'd be very grateful for some advice on what to do with my extremely
wild wisteria.

It's a mature plant, very neglected I'm afraid... it's chomped its way
through several trellises on the side of my house over the years; was
blown off the wall completely in a gale a couple of years ago and its
considerable, growing bulk has been held up for some time by a just a
couple of thick wires tied round masonry nails, and has become a huge,
tangled amorphous green blob.

Matters have now come to a head because I'm having to paint the wall,
so the beast has been taken down. In order to do this I have already
untangled and chopped away about two-thirds of its bulk (last week),
and have been left with essentially four long, thick vines, emanating
from a point 1-2 ft from the ground. I've put a photo at
http://tinyurl.com/o7qg

I'd really appreciate advice from you experts on what to do next. I
want to reattach it to the wall, properly this time, and encourage it
to regrow. I'd thought of screwing large eyes into the wall, and
attaching long horizontal rails of thick galvanised wire, right
accross the front of the house - does that sound OK? How far apart
would the rails need to be? Should I be cutting back the existing
plant any more than I already have?

I'll look after it properly next time, I promise...!

TIA
David

David wrote:

I'd really appreciate advice from you experts on what to do next. I
want to reattach it to the wall, properly this time, and encourage it
to regrow. I'd thought of screwing large eyes into the wall, and
attaching long horizontal rails of thick galvanised wire, right
accross the front of the house - does that sound OK? How far apart
would the rails need to be? Should I be cutting back the existing
plant any more than I already have?


don't cut back any more.

Don't use vine eyes - none are strong enough for that size of plant esp as
you will need to haul the weight of the plant up against them. Use expanding
eye-bolts (any hardwarestore shoul have them) these will provide a much
stronger anchorage.


I did excacly this for a client about this time of year two years ago when
they painted their house.

pk