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Wisteria being choked
Andrew Baker
Posts: 2
in Talkback
Hi
My wisteria has grow over the wire that supports it and a gardener told me that it will die and that there's no solution, it can't be cut out. The wire is spiralled around the stem.
I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions.
The plant is probably 25 years old.
Thanks,
Andrew
0
Posts
Cut what you can and cross your fingers.
I had a volunteer willow that grew up and around a wire mesh fence on my boundary and coped very well with its extra feature. We've hacked it down now but it lived several years with wire in its main trunk before we got rid of it so I dare say it would have gone on for years.
Thanks obelixx, I will try to dig it out a little, see what happens. It's a cracking plant, other than that. A
It's remarkable what plants will put up with if they must. I suspect that there are many wisterias with a similar complaint. Try pruning out just a few of the wire choked branches at a time, not now of course, but later in the year when it is dormant. Don't go all out at once. Also you could try cutting the wire, slipping the wire cutters under it - not always easy I know if it is deeply embedded. If you can cut it, the branch will expand and you need do nothing further - the plant will heal itself around the foreign body. You would be amazed at how many trees are felled only to have wire, hinges, nails and all sorts of things found deeply embedded inside them, and casing no harm, once they are not strangling it any more.
The other thing to do, of course, is nothing. I've seen many similar situations and the wisteria just grows round the wire, engulfing it, and carries on without noticing its metal meal.
H-C