How do I know whether my wisteria is dead?

[Newtssuitcase]

I have two tall ones which have been in pots all winter wrapped around a large cane. They look pretty dead with lots of spindly brown bits. If I scratch the base though there is green beneath the bark. Does that mean they've survived?

Do I need to prune them? If I took off all the spindly dead looking bits I'm not sure there would be much left!

Depending where you live and its position it might be ok. It does no harm to leave it a bit and see. Mine is south facing in the Midlands and is only just sprouting.

Mines not dead I don't think but it's not doing anything yet. Give it a few more weeks.

Mine has been looking very dead but this week has started sprouting, hang in there

Mine has tiny buds coming. Give it a few more weeks. If it is green under the bark then it is alive.

I would leave them - it's apparently pretty hard to kill a wisteria! Ours has lots of brown spindly sticks and that is where the new flowers come from. Ours also seems to bloom about 2 weeks after all the others I see so I would definitely leave them for now.

Mine's been starting to look alive this week, and buds are starting to open. Looks like another no-flower year though. We tried so hard and pruned according to exact instructions! I so want those lovely fragrant flowers one day!

Right I'll sit tight and wait. Ive given them a bit of baby bio (not sure whether that was right but I felt like they need some TLC). DH repotted them at the weekend and so they have more root space than they did before. Hopefully they are still alive (but they honestly do look like dead sticks. They have little buds but they seem all brown and crispy)

I do think that wisterias don't like to be moved - they sulk for years afterwards! We bought and planted a 5 year old plant and got no flowers until 3 years later, although we did get leaves and shoots. Then in year 4 we got about 3 flowers, year 5 it was covered and now in year 6 there are even more buds. My Dad moved his - a previously flowering one - and got nothing for the next 2 years either!

If you have repotted you might have to wait for a few years for flowers, but you should still get leaves.

These were still in the pots they arrived in last summer (we didn't get around to planting them because we then decided to re-do the patio this year). I thought they might need a bit of space since they won't go into the ground for another couple of months.

If they don't like being moved theyre going to have a right old strop about being moved twice in six months . hey ho, they are now in a good spot against a very sunny south facing wall and so that should make them happy at least.

I am very tempted to give them a good hack, they're about 2m tall but wrapped around a large cane (as they were in the nursery). I think I'd probably get it wrong though and so might wait until there are signs of life. If they do come back from the dead I also prune them at the end of the summer right?