Wisteria advice

Posts

• Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494

  January 2022

  @Heath64 ,That depends on whether or not you want to keep it and if so, are prepared for the upkeep. Yours look likes quite an old well established which, as you say, has been cut back quite severely before the house was repainted. It would most likely have reached to the top of the first floor windows and right across the front which would probably have meant a ladder was needed for twice annual pruning.
  
  If you want to keep it, I think you've now got two options, either keep it more or less as it is in a freestanding tree-like state and keep it fairly closely pruned or retrain across the front of the house, either below or above the windows (or both). To do that you will have to support the new growth by screwing in long vine eye screws at regular intervals and running thick tensioned wire between them, to which the wisteria can be tied.
  
  However, I notice that on your first floor, you appear to have rendered or pebble dashed walls and I am not in favour of screwing into those finishes as I believe it could cause damp penetration.
  
  In any event the wisteria should be pruned now, cutting off most of the long whippy growth (except that which you want to retain for new horizontal growth) back to about 
  5-8 cm from a joint where the knobbly buds can be seen. These will carry the flower buds for this year's flowers in April/May. You can refer to the GW or RHS site for more information and illustrations on how to do this.
  
  A second lighter pruning is usually carried out in July, cutting off this year's new whippy growth.
  
  A word of warning, wisteria can grow extremely fast and can get very big. If you neglect pruning it will easily reach your gutters and probably entwine between the roof tiles.
  
  It can look absolutely sensational however and smells divine when in flower.
  Good luck, whatever you decide. 
  
  

  North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone

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• Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889

  January 2022

  I'm afraid it's a classic example of " wrong plant, wrong place " 
  If you go for a tree like " standard " , you'll block a lot of light from the window, and if you go up, you'll never have an easy job repainting the house. 

  Devon.

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