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Wisteria Worries
RhonaBoatScotland
Posts: 2
Hello,
I am an extremely new gardener and need some help. We have an old wisteria tree in our back garden inherited from the previous owners. However, we add to replace and heighten a brick wall the wisteria once perched on.
We went to great lengths to insist the tree stayed. However, it is currently now facing out, away from the wall and flopping all over the place. It needs cut back for practical reasons because if we did force it onto the new wall, it would hang into a lane that is need for bin lorry access.
My research tells me to prune it in January. However, pruning back to reasonably recent growth isn't going to help much.
What are my options? Do I cut it right back to the thick trunks? Will it ever grow back? Or, is it a goner?
I've attached some photographs that will hopefully help.
Thank you in advance for any help.
I am an extremely new gardener and need some help. We have an old wisteria tree in our back garden inherited from the previous owners. However, we add to replace and heighten a brick wall the wisteria once perched on.
We went to great lengths to insist the tree stayed. However, it is currently now facing out, away from the wall and flopping all over the place. It needs cut back for practical reasons because if we did force it onto the new wall, it would hang into a lane that is need for bin lorry access.
My research tells me to prune it in January. However, pruning back to reasonably recent growth isn't going to help much.
What are my options? Do I cut it right back to the thick trunks? Will it ever grow back? Or, is it a goner?
I've attached some photographs that will hopefully help.
Thank you in advance for any help.
0
Posts
Once you've done that identify which stems you want to grow on, develop and train along your wall and remove all the rest. I would then give it a generous handful or 3 of pelleted chicken manure to encourage it and, when buds start to break, a feed of slow release rose or tomato feed to encourage flower bud formation.
You may not get any flowers this year but you should get new growth. In future, it will need pruning in July and January to encourage the formation of flower buds. more info here - https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=242
You may also want to think about attaching some vine eyes to that wall (screws with loops on the end instead of a flat or posidrive head) and then stretching some tensioned wires between them at 30cm to 45cm/12" to 18" horizontal intervals so you can train new stems along the wires just until they thicken up and become woody and self supporting.
All of it is facing away from the wall and the parts closest to the wall are over an inch thick.
I’m in Scotland so still below zero most nights, I’ll have another look this weekend and try and develop a strategy, maybe even develop a rig to gradually bend the branches towards the wall?