Wisteria

Most people seem to have no trouble growing wisteria. Over the years I have bought plants, tried layering and cuttings from established plants, but am ashamed to say I have never managed to establish one!
I am determined to have one. I have a small supermarket one struggling at the moment in a pot, [9" high after a year...] and I'm reluctant to pay out a lot of money until I know what I'm doing wrong. Any ideas, please? :(

 

PS my daughter in Camberwell has a layered one that I gave her which is doing well.... :confused:

 

Liz - I know very little about it. I bought a pretty cheap one from a nursery, and planted it in a bed of slightly acid improved clay. It is growing well, it has not flowered yet but is only two years old. I understand that you need a grafted one. Non grafted can take longer to flower. And that you need to prune twice a year in Feb/Mar and again in July. The pruning only affects the flowering not the growing.

I do know that you can grow them in pots - you can train them into self supporting (eventually) standards. However when it is in a pot it is depending on you for watering and feeding. You could upset it if you do not get it right. I put a couple of Acanthus in large pots, and they did not do well, until a nice lady in a garden centre said I should not water them every day for 5 seconds but 20 to 30 seconds. They have been wonderfull since. I suspect it would rather be in the ground, and well watered for the first year or two until it gets established.

 

we had one and were told it would flower after 3 years - it didn't! Then we were told that it can take 5 years, or even 8, unless we forced it, which seemed to involve more or less strangling the poor thing! We've just moved, so we'll never see it flowering now! Hope you have better luck!

 

I believe they like their roots in the shade and their heads in the sun. Thats what I read, not from experience I should say.

 

I believe seed grown ones (ie ones without a graft) can take a very long time to flower. But Alan Tichmarsh a week ago on television said that a grafted one should flower after a couple of years, if it is pruned correctly. But I gathered Liz's problem is getting it to grow - or is it getting it to flower?

 

Yes, PeterS, my problem is actually getting them to grow at all!
I think I'll plant it out, it hasn't any cover or mulch round the roots so I'll do that too.

 

I think what you might be doing wrong Liz, is not really buying a good plant to start with.
I dont mean that as an insult, what I'm trying to say is that you get what you pay for, wisteria is notorious for being difficult and it one of those plants, that, if you want quick results you need to buy from a good source.
I bought a named variety a few years back and it flowered after 3 years, grew like the clappers and I had to dig it out as the flowers were so long you couldn't walk underneath.
Pay a bit for a grafted variety, you wont regret it.

 

That's true pete2255, I have never bought a grafted one. They've always been supermarket or catalogue offers, or like my daughters, layered from an existing plant. Looks like I'll have to pay more! :eek: