Wisteria pruning

[glenthorpe]

Have got a wisteria at the front of the house.Does any one know how to prune for flower growth,keep it simple please!

Whole books have been written about pruning wisteria. get a pruning book from the library, honestly - my fave is the RHS one.

BUT basic principles. Wisteria have basic hard woody growth which is older, and new long whippy growth which is young. Flowers come on new whippy stems that grow out of the old hard woody stems. So long term you are aiming for a nice framework of harder woody stems that cover your house (or whatever), and you cut back the whippy new stuff to this every year, and every year new whippy stuff grows out of the stumps, has a flower, then grows and grows and grows and turns into the long whippy stuff.

www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0605/wisteria.asp has easy instructions and nice pictures

If you don't need to prune to keep the wisteria under control then just let it go - but it will cover a HUGE space. If it's over your house invest in a ladder and a nice pair of sharp Felcos

Yup, eyesfront' description is brill. Depends how big and established it is. Assuming it is well established, stand in front of it armed with secateurs and look carefully at each long whippy growth. Do you need to tie it in to build up the framework? More than one piece can be tied the same way. If you don't want to tie it in, then you have to prune it. Ideally you would have pruned 50% of each unwanted whippy bit in JUNE. Assuming you missed this , WAIT now until all the leaves are off (January is fine). Then, prune each unwanted whippy bit back to 3 buds from the woody old stem. After that it will be fine. The reason for pruning in this way is to maximise flowers at the end of each whippy stem. If you underprune, you end up with a tangled mess and not many flowers. If this happens, (or this is what you have), then prune hard back in January.

Thanks eyes and madam,great advice and thanks for the web site address