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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

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Original poster

Is this Wisteria normal?!

23 replies

Killerqueen2244 · 30/04/2018 18:57

I’m not a gardener so I’m just wondering if this wisteria on our south facing wall has taken too much of a battering from the winter?

We’ve not been in long and the agent photos of it during last summer show it to be very bushy and very green. Now it looks really wispy and half dead to me!

If it’s worth saving I’d like to have a go, with some good advice please!!!!

OP posts:

AsAProfessionalFekko · 30/04/2018 18:59

I can see some green in there. Maybe it needs a pruning to cut back the dead bits?

AsAProfessionalFekko · 30/04/2018 18:59

Yes and it usually does look like a dead twig in winter.

ChardonnaysPrettySister · 30/04/2018 18:59

It needs some serious pruning.

Hope it recovers.

Original poster

Killerqueen2244 · 30/04/2018 19:02

I read somewhere that wisteria should be pruned earlier in the year, would it be ok to get pruning now?

OP posts:

Hemlock2013 · 30/04/2018 19:02

Wisterias need thorough pruning. Maybe get a gardener in to show you one year then you can crack on. It’s not beyond hope though! X

bluerunningshoes · 30/04/2018 19:03

it looks like there is some green.
next winter cut it back a fair bit for better flowers.

Original poster

Killerqueen2244 · 30/04/2018 19:10

I think I will do @Hemlock2013 they’re so beautiful I don’t want to get it wrong if it’s hanging in the balance!

OP posts:

MotherofPearl · 30/04/2018 19:17

Mine is a lot later to flower this year because we've had such a cold spring. It looks pretty dead too, but I see some signs of life so confident it will flower soon - hope yours does too.

ChardonnaysPrettySister · 30/04/2018 19:19

Wisteria is a really late this year.

cloudtree · 30/04/2018 19:20

Mine looks dead too. But it has green buds so I know it isn't.

Wistfulthinking · 30/04/2018 19:39

Our wisteria is late too this year. Your flowers may come later and if you prune it now, you will likely lose the flowers. I think ideally you prune lightly in August pruning all the long wispy branches to 6-8 buds and again in February when it is bare, to 2-3 buds to encourage flowers over leaves. Ours is well established and can cope with a hard prune as it is very vigorous. You could prune out the excess growth and dead branches now, but what looks dead may just be dormant.

ChardonnaysPrettySister · 30/04/2018 19:42

I’d leave it now, to see what happens and assess the situation later.

Then remove the dead wood and the wispy growth and get a good gardener to so the big pruning on February.?

yamadori · 30/04/2018 20:00

Don't prune it at the moment, because you will cut off all the growing tips/flower buds and completely zap its energy. They can be pruned in early spring (feb/mar) but it's way too late to do it now. You could leave it until July or August and give it a haircut then. Meanwhile you can read up on it.

Phillipa12 · 30/04/2018 20:10

Mine is just about to spring into life, its about 5 Weeks late this year! It had a serious prune in march last year as the pergola it was over was removed and half of it got chopped down, i now have a wisteria tree that looks amazing.

Hemlock2013 · 30/04/2018 21:22

Yes sorry, to clarify pruning should be at the end of the season. I’ve been told late autumn but that could be off. Gardener will know.

StormcloakNord · 30/04/2018 21:24

Can I ask what might seem like a really stupid question...

If you don't have wisteria, but want wisteria, do you have to like... ask someone's permission? A council maybe? It looks lovely!!!

ChardonnaysPrettySister · 30/04/2018 21:27

No, you just need to go to your nearest garden centre and buy one.

I’m pretty sure there is no wisteria police or a council task force.

You do need some patience though, they might take a few years to get going.

StormcloakNord · 30/04/2018 21:29

Wisteria task force 😂😂

It's maybe something to look at when I go part time at work. I assume it's quite a high maintenance plant?!

ChardonnaysPrettySister · 30/04/2018 21:31

It can be a bully and grow quite a lot if not kept properly.

SacharissaCrisplock · 30/04/2018 21:31

Give it a good haircut next year and it will be fine - ours looks like that currently but I bet you in a fortnight it will be green and bushy.

It does look a lot like a twig in winter and I always worry I've managed to kill it this year but I haven't so far :)

SleightOfMind · 30/04/2018 21:31

Whereabouts are you?
I’m in SWlondon and our Wisteria is flowering but not much leaf yet. Looked completely dead a couple of weeks ago.

The hoary old gardening advice is to leave everything you inherit alone for two seasons, then take a view.

TheClitterati · 30/04/2018 21:36

@SleightOfMind by 2 seasons do you mean 2 years or say spring/summer or winter/spring.

I moved into somewhere with a garden in Feb - leaving it for a year seems like good advice. All the bare twigs in garden are now getting leafy.

Original poster

Killerqueen2244 · 30/04/2018 21:46

Thank you for all your advice, I’ve always been under the impression that Wisteria is a sensitive soul that needs a lot of looking after but it sounds like it is something, with a bit of research, I’ll be able to nurture!

We’re in the South so it sounds like ours is just a bit slow like everyone else’s, I’m obviously being impatient but after living with a postage stamp garden I’m looking forward to seeing the Wisteria in bloom! The rest of the garden is just an overgrown nightmare, which is a shame cause it looks like at one point it was cared for.

OP posts:

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