Hardly any flowers and loads of foliage on wisteria?

[sergeantmajormum]

Just that really - what can I do to get more flowers next year?
Its an old established plant, trained up front of house. It always seems to have more leaves than flowers but this year particularly so. Pruned twice a year - not sure if I pruned too hard or not enough? Will try and attach picture. TIA

I don't know how to help in your case. I am just sad because for the second year running my lovely big wisteria got hit by an April frost and all the zillions of buds turned brown and shrivelled - no flowers for me this year but it will bounce back. This happens about once every five years normally so 2 years in a row is very unlucky. It's too big to cover with fleece. Just looking at photos of how beautiful it was 2 years ago during lockdown 1!

Be brutal. In August chop off ALL the curly whippy bits of new season growth. Then cut back all the woody side stems leaving no more than 6 buds on each. Tie in and tidy the woods stems over the winter. Make sure you take out any suckers at the base or random new growth. The following March cut back again , this time to 3 buds.
It’s a jungle climber so it will shoot up if you let it, putting all its energy into height not flowers. If you give it it’s head it will just go up and up (mine was over the roof) with minimal or no flowers - and you can’t see them for the foliage anyway.
Make sure you get rid of any side stems twining around gutters/ drainpipes/ windows because it’s TOUGH and will punch it’s way through anything if it’s left.
I’ve got an old Japanese wisteria across the front of my house. It was already well established by 1927 (I found a photo) and was planted by the owners to celebrate the marriage of one of their daughters to a Japanese emigre in the 1880s. It had been badly neglected and was so overgrown that it was almost a separate eco system! Eventually I plucked up the courage to prune it. It’s taken 5 years to get it to flower reliably but now there’s 20-30 flowers ( racemes) for every metre of its length and its looks and smells amazing. Good luck!

@RebOrHon is right - ruthless pruning is what’s needed here. I have the same wisteria variant as you OP and was far too timid for the first few years. A bit of bravery last year and it is like a different plant now.

Unlike modern cultivars, the old Japanese varieties don't flower on bare wood, ie, you get flowers and foliage at the same time. You need sharp secateurs (and a bad mood ) to do a proper job

Are you also feeding it?

Do you have loads of birds/pigeons especially will peck off the buds to get at insects?