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Shall I cut off old flowers from wisteria?

TerryannTerryann Posts: 48
in Problem solving
Flowering nearly over now, just some petals at the tips left, do I cut these flowers off, I don’t seems to have any whispy bits or do these become the whispy bits once all petals have dropped?  Had this plant for 5 years and first time it’s flowered this year, 29 flowers (I counted them) I do feel this was luck rather than expertise.  I have given it a rose feed also this year, do I keep feeding once flowers stopped too?

Posts

  • StephenSouthwestStephenSouthwest Posts: 635
    My understanding is that if you cut off the flowers before the pods start forming you might get a second flush offliwdds later. I'm not completely convinced, but it certainly won't do any harm
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Once a wisteria gets the flowering habit it will, likely as not, produce sporadic flowers thru the rest of summer.   Removing spent flowers while the plant is small enough to do this will certainly encourage more to be produced.  Feeding with rose or tomato feed will also help.   Do not feed after July as new growth needs time to ripe, before winter frosts.

    Whippy shoots usually start appearing once the first flush of flowers is over and that's been late for most this year after the long, cold spring.   They'll be obvious when they appear and need cutting back to 7 nodes in July.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • TerryannTerryann Posts: 48
    Thanks for the advice, I will cut them off and hope for more, fingers crossed.  I shall give 1 last feed also.  
  • Papi JoPapi Jo Posts: 4,254
    I've not a 20 year-old Wisteria. Never fed it and never cut spent flowers. But of course pruned it several times a year, to prevent it from growing over the neighbour's roof and also to make it flower. It's thriving.
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