Wisteria pruning

The time to do this is supposed to be January, but with the recent warmer winters I'm tempted to do it before Christmas.
Last year I did it between Christmas and New Year.

 

I've always found the RHS website brilliant for pruning advice. Someone sent me this link when I was considering a wisteria a couple of years ago.

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?PID=242

 

I would have thought just after flowering and again in early spring. Having said that I gave mine a good cutting 2 weeks ago with the intention of tidying it up and putting in new wires over the winter

 

I've done a bit of this, I've got rid of any "stringers" that I've missed during the summer.
I take the attitude that when you want something like this to grow in a particular direction, it's like a "leaky hosepipe" all the side growth is taking the energy away from the direction you want it to grow.
I always prune it back each year to either two or four buds and you know you've got it right as you get lots of blooms before there's any real sign of foliage, but I still get huge amounts of this during the summer despite cutting a lot of it away after the blooms have finished. The second straggly bloom, I tend to prune as I don't think it particularly attractive.

The worst part of clearing away the leaves at this time of the year is that my Flymo gardenvac won't pick up the thin stalks so I have to sweep them up.

 

Then get yourself a proper blower/vac. - petrol

 

Err..

Thanks for that.....