The first time I cut back and leaf-pruned a Chinese wisteria, I was curious how it would respond to the work. I knew wisteria can grow well after mid-season cutback, but hadn’t experimented enough to know what to expect.
Now that I’m comfortable with the technique, it’s fun to see how quickly wisteria can fill in after they are pruned. Here’s the wisteria I pruned in mid-June (see “Leaf pruning Chinese wisteria” for details).
‘Caroline’ Chinese wisteria after leaf pruning – June 16
And here’s the tree three weeks later.
Wisteria in bloom – July 8
The flower buds started swelling within days of pruning and the first color appeared soon after.
Elongating raceme
Fully open flowers
I kept waiting for the perfect time to photograph the flowers, but as the leaves filled in faster than the blooms, there was always a mix of foliage and flowers on the tree. Before long, the leaves turned from gold to green and the upper petals began to lie down giving the flowers their characteristically soft look.
Chinese wisteria – July 11
Flowers just past their peak
Once most of the petals had dropped away, the seed pods started to form.
Young seed pods
To prevent the seeds from maturing, I removed the racemes by cutting back to the leaves below.
The only other work I did was to thin dense areas of foliage. I want to the tree to be full but will periodically thin the tree between now and fall if the density on the upper branches prevents the lower branches from getting enough light.
After removing the racemes and thinning – July 25
39″ tall
The big question at this point is whether stimulating flower buds in summer will have an effect on the bloom next spring. Although the flowers that just opened will obviously not be available next year, my guess is that new buds have set at the base of these flowers. I’ll know more when the tree opens up in spring. In the meantime, I’ll continue to give the tree plenty of sunshine, water, and fertilizer so it can grow well through summer.
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Chuck says
I have a native N. American wisteria and I started doing cutback based on one of Michael Hagedorn’s blog posts a few years ago. In GA, I’m able to do this three times in a growing season and have not observed adverse impact to next year’s flowering.
Jonas Dupuich says
Hi Chuck – thanks for sharing, it’s great to hear the process can be repeated so much without slowing down the flowering! The trees must be developing quickly – it’d be fun to see them someday!
Jim Scott says
Amazing…beautiful bonsai! I am beginning to try my hand at wisteria bonsai…I recently moved into a home on a pond and found a very old Chinese wisteria (50+ years old?)…it is climbing trees and sprouting everywhere! This should be fun…with unlimited supply…Thanks for the inspiration.
Jonas Dupuich says
Thanks, Jim – and good luck with your wisteria!
Rutledge Bryan says
You have done a beautiful job. I don’t think it has ever looked better.
Jonas Dupuich says
Thanks, Sam – it’s been a ton of fun to work with your tree!
Guy Vitale says
Hi Jonas, after reading your pruning article last month, I pruned back my wisteria as well. After only producing 3 brachts this spring, I was pleasantly surprised to see 10 or so brachts bloom out after summer pruning. I’m curious on your thoughts to how this will affect the brachts next spring? My tree usually produces heavily every other year, I am experimenting with removing at least 50% of the spring buds so the tree conserves some energy and pushes flowers every year. Thanks for the articles!
Jonas Dupuich says
Hi Guy! Wisteria often produce flower buds at the base of the previous year’s blooms so you may be in good shape for next year. I’ll be curious to hear if the cutback has an effect on the subsequent year’s blossom. Providing the tree with lots of sunshine and fertilizer is the only other thing I can think of to try.
Tony says
WOW!….am taking my notebook outside to show all m\y Wisteria how to act!….
pruned and fed one that has never bloomed and it is growing like crazy…repeating with couple more and see if can push them a bit…..fingers crossed they get jealous of your gorgeous wisteria.!
Thanks…
Jonas Dupuich says
Ha, it’s worth a try – I’ll cross my fingers too!
Gary Mills says
When you first started developing the wisteria, how did you develop branching? Does it just come from letting the vines continue to grow or did you cutback continually?
Jonas Dupuich says
Hi Gary – I didn’t develop the tree so I don’t know the exact approach taken, but based on the structure of the tree, it looks like it was cut back at numerous times throughout the tree’s development.