Wisteria ID and flowering times

Hi everyone. I'm new here, having moved hover from the GW forum.

We moved house last summer and have inherited a lovely wisteria. I have a few questions about it:

1. It has been in flower for about a week now. Next door have a wisteria on an identical aspect and it hasn't even started flowering yet. Lots of wisteria around town aren't flowering yet either. This makes me wonder - could I plant another one and get a really long flowering season?
2. Can anyone identify the variety using the fact above and the pictures I've provided?
3. The flowers are lovely but there are quite long lengths without flowers - can I encourage flowering buds on the bare stems?

 

Usually, the first to flower is W. sinensis, before the leaves emerge. Often gives a second flush of flowers. Then comes W. floribunda and it's hybrids. Flowers and new leaves at the same time.
Once the woody framework is formed, the idea is to prune new, whippy growth to 2 or 3 buds from the main stem. These stubs then form flower buds for the following year. Pruning is usually done in Jan and June or Feb and July but in practice they can need doing more often.
I wonder if these new shoots have been so severely pruned that the flowers have been sacrificed? You could try giving it a balanced feed, but be prepared to deal with the explosion of shoots

 

Completely agree with the above. It's a Chinese wisteria and they can get to be very big, vigorous plants, which makes planting another one close to it harder (and not advisable). I would concentrate on this one and let it develop new growth that you can train for flowering stems. If you did get a new one it would take a good few years to get going, so I don't think you necessarily gain anything.

You could take a look at the American wisteria frutescens "amethyst falls", which is a less vigorous species that flowers later, albeit nowhere near as impressively, and stays more compact. I grow this one and it flowers quickly for me and is easily managed. It's also easier to fit it in to the garden somewhere and looks good up an arch.

 

Wisterias are often grown with several interwinding main stems, which results in more flowers spaced closer together. It may be possible to do this with yours by selecting a couple of shoots low down and training them to follow the main structure. It would take several years to achieve, though.

 

Agree with the replies already given to the OP. For comparison's sake, here's a current pic of my Wisteria sinensis, planted about 25 years ago and meticulously pruned year after year. This year it's giving a particularly lovely show!

 

Thanks everyone. There is a bit of growth starting low down on one of the main stems so I'm going to encourage that to twine and head up into the canopy with the other branches.