By Wisteria18
I pruned a rather overgrown wisteria yesterday taking quite a lot off of the growth at the top (not the buds) and also 3 very thick stems growing near the base and middle of the trunk.
Also some of the thick stems/branches have grown into fencing and this is now embedded into the lattice fence panel. Should I leave the panel in there or cut the whole branch off? Pics attached.
Will all of my heavy pruning discourage flowering for this year ? What is the best way to support this wisteria which is currently against a crumbling fence?
I will attempt to add some images of the wisteria now.
22 Feb, 2012
In General, Wisteria18, the harder you prune a wistera, the better they grow, and even at this time of year you shouldn't worry about it too much - it just depends on how many buds you have left. Even if you've been brutal, NEXT year should be a good one. I have a 25 year old wistera that exactly 6 years ago was cut to the bone by builders putting scaffolding up the side of the house. The year after that the house was hard to see under all the blossom. It's hard to see from your photo whether all the twiggy stuff at the top of the fence is wisteria or bushes growing on the other side, but I would suggest that you could prune it even harder to shape it. I am afraid your fence is a goner, isn't it? The wisteria looks established enough for you to grow it as a tree, now if you wanted to. If you cut it radically to a main stem, and keep taking all the side branches off, including that almost horizontal one growing off to the left, a canopy should form which you could train into a "Weeping willow" shape, and wouldn't need to worry about any other support.
Welcome to GoY!
22 Feb, 2012