How To Get Great Results Growing Wisteria

Hi, I would like to talk to you about growing and caring for wisteria. Wisteria are very popular climbing plants and deservedly so due to the gorgeous swags of blue or white flowers that appear in spring or early summer. When you buy a wisteria, make sure that you buy one that is in flower or has obviously flowered as they can take some years to come into flower.

Plant in a well-drained fertile soil. Wisteria will dry out quickly, especially in a light or sandy soil. So, keep them well-watered, particularly in dry periods.

Plant them in a hole with some well-rotted manure and a handful fish blood and bone-meal. For the first year, until the plant has reached the required height and spread, feed every six to eight weeks with more fish blood and bone, which ensures the plant makes lots of leaf and stem growth. In subsequent years, do not feed the plant.

If you over-feed it with nitrogen-rich fertilizers, it will put on loads of leafy growth but it will not flower. Once established, wisteria doesn't really need much care. Water it in dry spells.

The flower buds for next year will be forming and they require water to develop properly. Having said don't feed the wisteria, you can feed it occasionally. But make sure you do this with a high potash feed.

These are specifically designed to encourage flowers and fruits rather than stem and leaf growth. Wisterias are really great for growing in containers and you can train them as a standard, which is a great solution if you have a small garden because a wisteria will otherwise grow very large. Wisteria has a reputation for being complicated to prune but they really aren't.

If you don't prune your wisteria at all, nothing bad will happen to it. It will get enormous and you won't get so many flowers. In my opinion, they only look good when kept tightly pruned into their supports.

Pruning controls overenthusiastic growth and ensures more flowers at a height where you can actually appreciate them. Wisteria get pruned twice a year, in July or August, just after they have finished flowering, then in January or February. For the first, or summer pruning, cut back the whippy green shoots of the current year's growth to five or six leaves after flowering in July or August.

This controls the size of the wisteria, preventing it getting into guttering, windows, and also encourages it to form flower buds rather than just to keep growing lots of stems and leaves. Winter pruning involves cutting back the same growths to two or three buds in January or February when the plant is dormant and leafless. This is to tidy up before the growing season starts and ensure the flowers will not be obscured by any leaves.

So, that's it. That's how to grow and care for your wisteria. They are really very tough plants and it is quite difficult actually to kill them.

So, don't be scared. .