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Gardening

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

help me trellis my wisteria?

3 replies

nongnangning · 25/01/2026 19:59

I have a wisteria growing up the front of my house. It's been looking a bit straggly and messy for the last couple of years, so this year I am going to give it a hard prune and lay some wires across the house front, either in tramlines or a trellis-style so the wisteria can cling to these. However ... I am not at all knowledgeable about either DIY or gardening. My DH is helping - he is good with the DIY and will work to my instructions up the ladder ... but what instructions shall I give him?
Has anyone done the affixing of the wires before? I think I need some screws called vine screws, with rings on the end that you drill into the brickwork and then thread some wire through. But what size screws and so on?
If anyone who knows about how to do this can offer any advice or point me to an influencer who has a video on this I would be so grateful! TIA

OP posts:
Gall10 · 25/01/2026 20:03

Turnbuckle….once you have the vine screws & wires attached, the turnbuckle screws tighten the wire so that it doesn’t ‘droop’ with the weight of the wisteria. You can easily get these at places like screwfix, b&q, garden centres etc. all of us are looking forward to your beautiful pics in June! Good luck.

Agapornis · 25/01/2026 23:48

Look up some real gardeners advice, not any influencer! E.g. from the RHS
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/wisteria/growing-guide

Vine eye screws, I went for 10 cm long to get them away from the wall. You might be okay with 5 cm, I think that's personal preference. Drill holes in the brick (unless you have really strong mortar), push in plugs, then screw in.

With hindsight I'd put in a wire tension mechanism, as it's slacking a bit three years on. You can use turn buckles, but old fashioned fence wire tensioners are cheaper and do the job too. If you're on an even smaller budget, you can use nails and ideally a nut. (Like nut & bolt - not a hazelnut.)

Do follow the RHS pruning instructions if you want flowers this year and next year. It's not hard but it is specific about the correct time of year and length.

How to grow wisteria  / RHS Gardening

How to grow wisteria / RHS Gardening

Learn how to grow wisteria in your garden with the RHS expert guide on choosing, planting, feeding, pruning and propagating plants.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/wisteria/growing-guide

nongnangning · 27/01/2026 08:41

Very helpful thank you @Gall10 @Agapornis
After reading, looking up turnbuckles, combing RHS, I went outside with DH yesterday to look at the front of the house, stare at the wisteria and decide where to put the wires. Next stop Screwfix and then having a go at putting up the wires and doing the pruning this weekend. Your advice much appreciated.

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