Wisteria

Hello,

I have a white wisteria that has been in for about 4 years. It has grown well - but has never flowered.

Can anyone give me some advise on why this should be and if I can do anything to encourage it?

Thanks

Feline

 

Have a look HERE Feline

Might help.:thumb:

 

- taken from above link.

Good question Feline, I have the same problem (mine's been in for 3 years) Thought I'd covered all my bases, but I will try the above.

Thanks for the helpful link tweaky

Beki

 

My pleasure:thumb:

I use Google quiet a lot, but sometime there is no better advice than from members on here, who have personal experience of growing stuff.

Same with books I suppose. Reading is one thing, but get chatting to a gardener etc, and you can learn much more. God bless em.

 

Hi Feline/BekiMac/tweaky - how strange I have had the same problem and I had actually forgotten what colour the wisteria should have been until this year when it has flowered for the very first time in probably about 5/6 years (sounds ridiculous but it's true). I gave it a really good prune earlier in the year, chopped down the surrounding honeysuckle and it seems to have done the trick! (The link was very useful - thnx tweaky!)

 

If you have a neighbour that grows Wisteria..do what I did. I asked him to leave one of the shoots from near the base and used the old trick of layering in a plant pot.

After one season, it had rooted. Planted it and the second season got flowers, although still a small plant. After 5 years it was beautiful.

So I followed his example. Removed any shoots that I didn't want. Cut the other shoots back to 3 buds every year and I eventually had a plant that grew right over the front porch....for free.:thumb:

 

There are 2 ways you can buy Wisteria. Grafted or seed raised. If the plant is grafted you will very often buy it in flower. If it is seed grown, you can very often have to wait 10 or 12 years for it to flower. So ALWAYS make sure you buy grafted plants. Beki, if you are just going to feed your plant superphosphate, all you will be doing is feeding the roots. For flower production you need to feed with potash, tomato food is ideal. But if you have a seed grown plant, you will still need to be patient.:D:thumb:

 

Hi David and thanks,
As far as I can tell mine is a seed grown plant, no obvious signs of a graft, however, I shall bear your comment in mind.
I generally feed all the garden with general plant food intemitently throughout the growing period, I haven't specifically used phosphate or potash based products before, is this something I should be doing?
The general condition of our soil is poor, water retentive with medium-heavy clay.

Regards, Beki.

 

Beki, clay has more nutrients than any other soil. If it`s seed raised you wont have flowers for a few years yet. Try feeding once a week with tomato feed.

 

I didn't know that about clay!:eek: It's heavy pot-making material we have here :D, along with lots of rubble, presumably from when the estate was built.

I got what you advised the wrong way round :p doh, ok, I'll use the tomatoe feed, and be patient for a decade or so:rolleyes:

Cheers David

Regards, Beki x

 

:thumb::D:D

 

As a good rule of thumb you can determine if its grafted or seed grown by the price of the plant.

Must say I have never seen seed grown plants for sale in a reputable nursery.

 

Thanks everyone. I have just been out to check and I can't see that it's a graft, so it must be grown from seed.

I think it came from M&S when they were doing 3 for 2 on shrubs. Don't laugh - I was new to gardening then!!!

I do prune it every year - I think what I do it OK.

Our garden is south facing so it gets the afternoon full sun - so the postion should be OK.

I have some tomato feed so will try that.

Thanks again - maybe I'll look for another one to buy that's a graft.

Feline