Wisteria pruning

Now here is a Spring success story.

I feel I have finally won the battle of the wisteria.

Which actually means this season I am in charge. Turn your back and you won’t be so smug.

I do know that when we bought this farm 18 years ago the wisteria on the front of the house was in serious invasive mode.

I tried to find pictures, but the owner admitted that they lopped it to the ground before putting the farm up for sale.

I do have examples of the other wisteria growing on the north side.

That must be a very familiar scene to many of you.

The tricky thing is that unless you can actually reach, you tend to lose the will to live.

And the wisteria romps away.

A few years ago I did the HUGE hack back. But kept an eye on the long snaking tendrils that tend to appear after such a radical prune.

I wanted the main plant to stay south, but also feed the climber up the newly built lean to shed and over our east wall.

Instead of yet more pointing and replacing the ailing mortar, I wanted a green wall.

And this year with the judicious training, it feels like a success.

My desk is just inside these French windows. So the perfume (and the incredible buzz of bees) is a wonderful early morning delight.

The main plant is still on the front of the house.

But I keep it below head height so I can prune.

And it no longer grows over the shutters at the far end the house.

We did have a white wisteria in the east facing part of the house.

But one spring it just dramatically died.

It did look fetching when it was healthy, but once again, it was forever making a run for the gutters and the roof.

I did try to do something with the tendrils that survived.

I suspect it was the rooting stock of this rather princessy plant. But this winter I decided that with the success of the purple wisteria on the front of the house I have a surfeit of this amazing springtime shrub.

So I cut back hard and am keeping an eye. It does tend to pop up in nearby bits of wall and soil.

Gardener 1 : Invasive climber 0.