Wysteria.... Hmmmm!

We inherited a Wysteria last may when we moved home. It was overgrown and the tentacles had started to damage the roof of the garage so I gave it a hard cut back in July (I know, I know) with a hedge trimmer (I know, I know).



In December I used secateurs and cut it back to three buds, it's now late April and this is what it looks like now - no flowers and it's growing vigorously. At the weekends I trim the top tentacles away from the garage roof.



Any advice or tips would be appreciated.



Thanks!

 

The advice I was given was to cut it back to three buds in December.

It wasn't in flower when we moved in last year just overgrown - I am wondering if it has ever flowered and wether to just hack it down

 

Hi Kalvin, It's too late to do much about the old, tangled stems, which is a shame, but it would be worth tracing some of those lower, thinner woody stems to see if they are producing all the top growth. It might just be that the rootstock (wisterias are usually grafted) has been allowed to take over and that is why you're not getting any flowers.
If you follow the main, thick woody stem up and there are no new leaves on it, then that is what will have happened. It's a gamble keeping a wisteria once the rootstock's taken over...it might never flower or flowers will be pretty worthless.
If the main stem does have leaves, though, then I'd chop off the thinner stuff at the base and cut out/disentangle those stems to leave you with the original plant.
Then you just cut back the tentacles to two or three buds, twice a year (usually Jan/Feb and June/July) to make it form flower buds. Hope this hasn't confused you....please ask if you need anything clarifying, and one of our experts will do you a pretty pruning diagram

 

Great thank you, I'll have a look tomorrow once I get home to see what is going on and I will report back.

 

Did you see it flower last year?

Chinese Wisteria (W. sinensis) would flower before the leaves, Japanese Wisteria (W. floribunda) after/at same time as the leaves. W. sinensis twines anticlockwise, and W. floribunda clockwise

 

No unfortunately , we moved in last year and it was overgrown as per OP.

 

After hacking it this evening, this is what it looks like!

 

Are you still hacking?
I think you need to stop hacking.

It looks like a good plant to me, quite old, so needs to be trated with respect.

 

nope, I have stopped looks horrible now :(

 

Well done, Kalvin! It's not easy to sort out which stem leads to what.... Now all you need to do is keep the tentacles trimmed back to a couple of buds which should form flowering spurs for next year. What about a big pot at the base with annual climbers to cover the bare stem? Morning glories, canary creeper, cup-and-saucer vine....would give you flowers without doing any harm to the wisteria....

 

Update July 6th

I trimmed the tentacles today

 

It's certainly looking healthy Kalvin, did it bloom this year?