In lieu of a regular post this week, I wanted to share an image of a wisteria in bloom. Caroline Wisteria – 33″ Sam Bryan did a fantastic job creating this tree that continues to produce flowers and refined branching every year. (If you’re curious about how the tree is trained, see “Developing branches on […]
Wisteria
Developing branches on Chinese wisteria
For the last year and a half, I’ve been working to increase the branch density on a Chinese wisteria. Last fall, I was able to see the results. Here’s what the tree looked like in fall. Fall color – November, 2020 After removing the leaves Seeing that the new shoots were 4-5″ long, I reduced […]
Leaf pruning Chinese wisteria – follow-up
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 […]
Cutback and leaf pruning a dwarf wisteria
I’ve been learning this year that doing the same work at a slightly different time can make a big difference. I usually thin my dwarf wisteria, Millettia japonica ‘Microphylla,’ in May, but this year I pruned it in June. Dwarf wisteria before cutback As you can see, the foliage is dense – so much so […]
Leaf pruning Chinese wisteria
Last summer I took a conservative approach to pruning a Chinese wisteria. I shortened long runners down to five or six inches and leaf-pruned to four-to-six leaflets (see “Cutback on Chinese wisteria” for details). This year, I want to cut back to two or three buds per shoot and leaf prune to two leaflets. The […]