Wisteria - a tricky climber or worth it?

[Solo2]

I need to select some climbers for the fence along the back of our garden and plan to have plenty of honeysuckle (Halls' prolific) for it's scent and possibly clematis armandii and tachelospermum jasminoides.

However, should I dare try a wisteria? I've had one miserable failure with a wisteria that has never flourished or flowered or really grown at all but this was elsewhere in the garden, near an area with lots of tree roots.

The new area is plant free at present and gets a lot of sunlight as it's south facing. Would a mature wisteria - ie one that's already about 6ft to 7 ft - flower next season or is it as I fear - that they can take years and years to flower and are hard to manage in any case?

They aren't hard to manage.We inherited one when we moved here and it was a miserable looking thing when we moved in.However I chopped it back in June after flowering and shortened the whippy bits in January and it has flowered beautifully ever since.Apparently they don't like rich soil or cosseting-mine is in a tiny bed at the front of the house with poor soil and in a rain shadow,so has it pretty hard.You do have to be careful to get a decently grafted specimen though-some are grafted onto a rootstock that will never flower,no matter what,so if you can,get one that has already matured enough to flower or is guaranteed.

Thanks MrsThis.... That's encouraging. May give it a try then.