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Wisteria sinensis
Earlier this year I gave into the temptation of the pretty pictures on the label and impulse bought my first wisteria.
As with most of my impulse buys I had no idea where I will eventually plant it so I stuck it in a pot whilst I procrastinate. It's been growing happily for a couple of months and is now about 2ft high.
Q.1: There are shoots coming up from below the soil, do I just chop them off or do I need to dig down to take them off from the base?
Q.2: Is the "graft" the bit beside the bottom node on the bamboo cane I've stuck in for temporary support?
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clear away the soil and you should be able to rub that little shoot off with your fingers.
Cut off the shoot growing to the right.
You can see the top of the rootstock in the bottom photo. It's the little spur where it's been trimmed back. If that makes sense??
Thanks Hosta. The one on the right is from below ground too (bad photo angle
).
Think you've confirmed where I think the join is, where it goes to the left in pic 2 and the stem is greener.
Had a moment of madness buying it, I have to figure out where to put it now
I would dearly love a wisteria but I once watched a programme where they were pruning them and my head blew up. I've enough trouble remembering "ordinary" pruning.
pp, it's not that hard honest.
Prune back whippy new growth in July to about 5 buds, then shorten those shoots to about 2 / 3 buds in January.
I'm a sucker for a pretty pic on the label, now I have to suffer the consequences.
Give it 12 months and I'll be posting photo's on the "GOS" and wondering where it all went wrong.
Stop it Hosta. I'd love one But I'm useless at all that! I went to Tuscany in April a few years ago and they are everywhere! Huge beautiful plants. Some in pots, some as "standards". Stunning!
I've been doing a lot of reading up on the subject Doghouse, and I suspect that your pink one is a "wisteria floribunda" (Japanese) rather than a sinensis (Chinese). Yours are lovely (I've seen the photos of them all), I was probably still at school when you started growing them
I'm going to try and grow mine as a standard. The advice given on the RHS website amongst others is to start with a young, single stemmed plant. My little twig seems like a perfect candidate for a first attempt.
With time and patience, hopefully I will get something resembling a nice plant.
I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's grown a standard, first hand knowledge beats google any day.
Adding a photo to remind myself of the progress of my twig 😁. I 'stopped' the main stem at 4ft tall, when it reached the top of the coated steel stake I've put in. The leafy green growth adds around another 8" to the overall height. It is flowering for the first time this summer (July 2018), 😦❓could be due to this years heatwave.
I think 4' may be a bit short but if you insist it should be OK. I've seen them done very well as 2m ish single stemmed jobbies with the branches trained out in a parasol shape. Very attractive if you have the space.
I would loosen those ties so you don't risk strangling the stem and impeding sap flow.
I'm treating this project as a largish bonsai experiment and it made sense to me to chop it level with the top of the support cane, ties are regularly loosened.
I think I'm finally getting the hang of pruning after reading all the forum advice on it, much of it from you👍thanks.
I'm hoping to see a proper flush of flowers next spring (fingers crossed).
It's been a fun experiment for me, a wisteria newbie😊.