whisteria

[jaotguy]

I've got a plant ( 8-9) years old , up in the cold in Canada , it just grows and never flowers ... Tried pruning it back twice a year as some suggest , but still no luck ....

any advice?

 

[brin]

If you are putting fertilizer on it...then you are getting plenty of growth....but no flowers...Try no fertilizer for a season or so and see if you don't get many flowers....

 

[Tollster]

I have found heavy pruning makes mine flower, you won't kill it, trust me.. if it feels threatened, it will flower, as strange as it may sound... Like Brin said, if its feels all comfy with food and water, it won't propagate.. I had a hard time wrapping my head around it, (its a plant), but saw a difference when I pruned it back 50% or better in the winter..

I also found it strange that I have two that flower in the spring, and six that flower mid to late summer.. The spring ones are the ones I have to prune back and just did it today as a matter of fact.

 

[jaotguy]

50 % ? .... I think I should be a bit more aggressive then.... been too good to it.

 

[/pine]

If it gets enough sun...use a fertilizer with as high as a "middle" number as you can find...look for something like or similar to "bloom buster"...

 

[jaotguy]

something else to try ... Hmmmm ... I'm getting old these days , don't have many more years left and I'd like to see it bloom before I go to the "big tractor farm" in the sky.

 

[MacLawn]

To me, wisteria is right there with kudzu. In the south, I cringe if someone tells me they are actually planting wisteria. That stuff'll go wild quick here, then choke out everything else. Kind of like them jumping Asian carp in Illinois.

 

[jaotguy]

it was a gift to the wife from a friend..... now she's on my case to "get it to flower" .... better to ask those that "have done it" rather than figure it out from trial and error.

 

[Tollster]

To me, wisteria is right there with kudzu. In the south, I cringe if someone tells me they are actually planting wisteria. That stuff'll go wild quick here, then choke out everything else. Kind of like them jumping Asian carp in Illinois.

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We don't have that trouble with it up north, although it does need to be maintained, I know when it gets hot and humid, I need to trim it back more often. I have trained all mine to be more of a tree form.

 

[MacLawn]

But I think birds can spread it all over. Not certain, but I see the mess climbing all over trees way out in the woods. It is pretty I reckon. Now, if those Asian carp only tasted good...

 

[jaotguy]

But I think birds can spread it all over.

I don't have that problem (yet) no blooms = no seeds

 

[jel1988]

Down here in SC the wisteria is just about to bloom. As mentioned in an earlier post it grows wild and is a nusance to most. You are too far north for wisteria to grow. It's amazing the frost has not killed the roots. If you talk to most nurseries they won't send it north of Toronto. My mother had it for years couldn't get it to bloom and she lives in Windsor area. Find something that grows in your climatic zone.

 

[farmgirl19]

WHEN you prune has a lot of bearing on if it blooms. If one if going to prune, (and believe me, they always need it!) it should be done right after the new growth of leaves and such gets set. If you prune later in the season or year, you prune off the area the new blooms would have come from.

I trim more than 50% off of mine, but I do it in the Springtime. It will bloom beautifully, before even setting leaves, each year, early Spring. I still have to trim a few runners, vines back, just to try to keep it contained, even after "butchering it" earlier in the year. Once mine is finished blooming, I get busy chopping.

Maybe you are trimming too often, and during the wrong time for it?

A couple of other things, If your plant was started from seed, instead of from cuttings, it can take DECADES to bloom. And Wisteria do NOT like fertilizer. If they get more fertilizer than they like, they will not bloom. They also prefer well drained soil.

 

[jaotguy]

pruned back about 1/4 of the length of the runners in early spring last year just before the new growth started , sandy soil with a bit of topsoil mixed in , didn't fertilize.

Too far up north ? kill the roots? then why do I have one in my front yard that grows well but won't flower ... the 3 trunks are about 3/4" thick at this point and about 5 foot tall before the runners get strung sideways on a trellis.....

it was about 6" tall when we were given it ....