By Barbarak
North Yorkshire,
United Kingdom 
Wisteria Question
We are about to have new paving around the front of the bungalow where there is an old gnarled and intertwined wisteria. It is new to us and only had one flower last spring. It is very overgrown with a birds nest in situ last spring. The previous owner probably kept the height down (as bungalow) but left it to grow really thick. The roots are under the existing path. How severe can I prune out old wood so its not drooping over the path? It may be all academic if they take up the path and then need to damage the roots laying the new blockpaving.
7 Nov, 2014
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I suggest you wait till the paving's done - they will need to excavate a good six inches for block paving, in order to get the levels right. You can cut it down to about 4 inches from the ground and it'll still grow, but you won't get any flowers for a good while (at least 3 years), and if they've had to remove a goodly portion of roots, there's no way of knowing whether, and how well, it will grow afterwards. On balance, if its unproductive, and will be more so after hacking back top and root wise, and the fact that it may well have some very large roots which, if they increase in size, will disrupt the paving, I'd be inclined to chop it down and kill it off, or have it removed if there's time, and choose something else instead.
7 Nov, 2014