How to Wow with Wisterias

Wisterias are one of the most beautiful flowering garden plants and in my opinion the most beautiful of all the climbers showering down long blooms of flowers that flow down like waterfalls in May followed by gentle pinnate foliage that softens any brickwork. They look good across cottages, estate houses or modern architectural buildings.

It's commonly believed that it can take 7, 9 or even 12 years for a Wisteria to flower but this isn't the case. With the correct pruning method you can rapidly speed up the time it takes for Wisteria to flower. I have experimented with pruning techniques over the years and found that I can get a Wisteria to flower within one or two years of pruning it and when you prune it correctly it flowers abundantly.

Most people prune Wisterias in the summer, when they produce long green growth often 3m long, cutting them back to where they want them to fit into. Although this is okay it doesn't necessarily produce flowering stems. The trick is to prune in winter, January/February time, when there are no leaves on the plants. This allows us to see all the stems that we want to remove and cut them back hard. The idea is to produce a framework of old wood with smaller spurs upon which the flowers are produced the following year. This is done by cutting out the long whippy stems back to around 4 to 6 buds or roughly 6 inches of stem. These harden off producing flowers the year after. Some of the longer stems can be left in in order to create framework for future years but there is generally too much of this kind of growth and it needs to be removed as it is unproductive.

The same pruning technique can be applied in the summer but at this time of the year it's harder to see all the stems as the plants generally get congested with lots of branches so it is hard to be as thorough. Wisteria really need pruning at least twice a year if not more. Winter pruning also keeps them much tidier when flowering as there is no foliage on them when they start blooming.

So now you know how to get flowers on your wisteria isn’t it worth applying this technique so you can have that picturesque abundance of flowers that you've always wanted?