wisteria senensis questions
i went to the gc today and was intending to buy a wisteria, anyway i ended up buying one for a quarter of the price £10 as it was looking very sorry for itself, they have said if it doesn't pull through they will refund my money so how could i say no really!
It is a wisteria senensis (pardon if it's spelt wrong but it's raining now to go check) it's about 5ft tall and only had one main stem which was alive the rest were dead and the garden centre cut those off, there is another one about 1ft long coming from the bottom which is also alive. it has no leaves and has a few buds which i'm not sure if they are flower buds not developed, these are on the end of the tallest stem
. I have bought a massive pot for it and it will be (hopefully) growing over the front of the house (facing south) we are in south east uk
I have bought john innes no.3 for it
My q's are:
it is not a grafted plant so will it flower next year if it survives (it is woody rather than soft fresh green) i ask because i have read that non grafted plants can take years to flower
what would you do with it to bring it back to health?
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I don't think you will have any problems. The buds look healthy - leaves will sprout in a couple of weeks. Just remember to prune Sept and Jan. I've had mine over 20 years...bought from Woolworths for 99p and was about 6 inches high. It did take about 6 years to flower but now covers a pergola about 12ft long 6ft wide.
would they be leaf buds as opposed to flower buds then? i don't know if you can see but they look a bit like hops up close, i can't tell if it has flowered or not and as it was tucked away at the back the gc didn't know either.
will it, being an ungrafted one plant make a difference to when it will flower, i'm guessing it is a few years old rather than a new one
Hi sanjy, they are definitely flower buds
I'm not sure about the grafting - maybe someone else could answer that one?
thank you gardeninglily1
your plant looks fine to me... The graft question... wisteria grows very easily from seed, but seedlings are somewhat unpredictable in their performance, meaning they can take years to bloom and sometimes they are poor bloomers (but not necessarily). Cheap wisteria offers might be seedlings. Cuttings, or layering, from good plants are the more sure-bet modes of propagating, and are usually somewhat more expensive. I suppose that cuttings will also be grafted on seedling rootstock sometimes, but it's not as if that is a requisite for good performance. My granny has a fantabulous plant which grew from seed carried in a suitcase from Argentina... So never mind the grafting question, and just enjoy your plant
On reading katherine's comments Im sure mine must have been a seedling sanjy as it took a long time to flower. But, it has flowered profusely every year for the last 20 years
hi & thanks katherine it was priced at £40 but i got it for £10 as it looked so sorry for itself. The only reason for my grafting question is i didn't want to wait 20 years (as i read was possible) if it was a seedling for it to flower. I'm hoping not
gardeninglily1 i hope it flowers before six years, my patience isn't my strong point
do you think i should add some potash to it as i'm planting it to give it a boost towards flowering
Ah, good on you for the reduced price... I have a soft spot for sorry plants on sale... they are often good plants, just they lost some of their full plumage because of sitting ina small pot for ages in the GC.
Usually for this sort of half starvd plants, I feed them well (but carefully, better little and often, than too much - too quick) with a npk 6-6-6 liquid fertilizer until they are growing strongly, then either I plant the out, or treat them like any other potted plant.
is that what i have to look for in the shop npk 6-6-6 ? or is that a recipe of some sort, thank you everyone i really do appreciate all the help given
We were given one by our in laws and last year we planted it in the ground. This year we have our first flower trusses. Our in laws have one in their garden, a white flowering one, which was grafted onto a 'usual' flowering one, and I think they now get two different lots of flowers.