Wisteria- what am I doing wrong?

[sasquatch]

I tend the wisteria that comes over from my neighbours garden. The problem is I have been pruning it as advised by books, that is taking back the long whippy parts to 2 or 3 new buds after flowering as it these will produce flower next year. For the last few years it has produced more leaf than flower, and still keeps getting bigger. Do I need to cut it back harder? And if so will I lose flower for one year.I often see large plants cut back to no green.

My neighbours have a very large wisteria ... it is never pruned and flowers beautifully every year. The only cutting back they do is when it grows too high and gets near to the gutters and roof. Actually, I've never seen a pruned one ....

Mine is stunning - flowers all over the front of the house. I cut it back very hard (to 2 or 3 buds) in late November, once it is dormant.

Do you feed it? I give mine a feed that is high in potassium (check N-P-K ratio on the box) as soon as the flower buds start to form, and one high in nitrogen now when the flowers are fading and the leaves are starting to look a bit yellow.

Thanks for replies.
Muffin no I've never fed it, it is rooted next door, but in the past it has had better flowering. Could I prune it now as well as in November? it has flowered already and I want to tidy it up before then, masses of long whippy shoots already. I have been pruning it in the summer anytime after flowering rathr than once dormant.Perhaps that is where I am going wrong.

You could remove the whippy shoots now (different books say different things on that). Think I will do that (can't remember what I did last year).

I'd hazard a guess that my pruning it early you are confusing it, and making it produce lots of leafy growth at the wrong time. I'd wait until very late in the year when all the leaves have fallen off.

I don't prune mine anymore but keep the whippy bits trained on a trellised wall. I planted it 2 years ago and I had my 1st 2 blossoms this year(!) I think wisteria must be like iris, who hate to be mucked about with.

My gardener friend says the problem often is that non-flowering shoots come off the rootstock (wisteria are usually grafted). If the shoots are coming from next door, it's probably hard to see whether they're coming from above or below the graft.

Madbad,I'm pretty sure its the main plant, its branches are thick and mature and it has lots of buds every year but not many seem to turn to flower. I trim it after flowering because it throws more shade in my not very bright garden,and crowds other stuff,a climbing rose nearby. but Muffin I will take your advice and try and live with it until November. If I can still get to it by then.

Any other offers?

Could you take off a branch of the old wood to reduce the size of it, and reduce the amount of shade it casts? You might lose flowers for another year though...

They do grow so rapidly though. Mine grows in through open windows at the front of the house, and I have to push it back out when I close them. You can see it growing in the course of a day.

Ok. Ive decided. a more brutal pruning in November. Which I thought I did last summer but clearly was wimpish about, it is one of my mistakes generally in the garden. To include taking some of the old wood out, in hope of a flowering 2010

Thanks!