Maggie's Farm

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Sunday, May 12. 2024

Happy Mom's Day, Moms. Got Wisteria?

We do. Every year it blooms on Mother's Day:


Posted by Bird Dog in Gardens, Plants, etc. at 05:11 | Comments (27) | Trackbacks (0)

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We had a wisteria hell at one time. The neighbor asked me if I could do something about it. From his yard the wisteria was 15 feet high. It took four men three days to clear the lot. Talk about a loss of privacy.

I will never again have wisteria. It is beautiful in bloom and has a wondrous smell of springtime but I think I would rather have English ivy.
#1 tennesseered on 2015-05-15 07:00 (Reply)
I would rather have English ivy. Glad to send you some. I put a few sprigs on a small bare spot on a steep slope about 30 years ago, and now it covers many hundreds of square feet and tries to climb trees, shrubs, walls or anything else vertical, leaps across walkways; you name it.
#1.1 BillH on 2015-05-15 10:17 (Reply)
I would love to see a springtime photo of the beautiful gray building with the lavender door.
#2 Ann K on 2015-05-15 08:23 (Reply)
lovely .
#3 La on 2015-05-15 09:14 (Reply)
My 10th grade biology teacher brought a bunch of Wisteria blossoms to class and dipped it in pancake batter, fried it and served it to the students. It was different. Back in 1974, this was my introduction to the world of Euell Gibbons and "natural foods". Being from the South, I think anything fried is worth a try - but still I prefer meat, especially wild meat like venison.
#4 John McB on 2015-05-15 09:35 (Reply)
Used to have a wonderful wisteria outside my screened sunroom in Southport.
#5 Vanderleun on 2015-05-16 12:24 (Reply)
They're beautiful, unless you have an odd one like I do that doesn't bloom. It sat in the middle of our yard for about 6 years without a single bloom. According to the local radio gardening expert, sometimes you just get one that does this. Then a couple years ago started blooming sparsely out of nowhere. Violently disturbing the roots with a shovel in late winter helps.
#6 Jack Walter on 2017-05-18 07:37 (Reply)
I dug it up this spring and put it in a pot. Actually, two separate trunks and I plan on making bonsai out of them.
#6.1 jack walter on 2023-05-13 20:55 (Reply)
Wisteria takes 7 years to first bloom.
You have to starve it of nitrogen.
Prune it correctly to stimulate blooms - cut the youngest vines of the prior season back so 2 buds remain above their joint with larger vine.
Works most every year -
Squirrels often do the pruning for us!

Placement is key - it will tear down whatever it gets in its grip unless you tend it aggressively. Our pergola is fine after 15 years.
#6.2 Louie Miller on 2023-05-14 08:55 (Reply)
Lovely plant.

When we lived in the UK, it was always one of our great pleasures to see the stuff growing on old English houses in the countryside.

If there is one house in England named Wisteria Lodge, there must be a thousand of them!
#7 JJM on 2017-05-18 12:55 (Reply)
Bird Dog - I'm curious about whether you like the wisteria at all the times of the year it is not in bloom. Is it pretty and green? Does the vine constantly drop twigs and leaves down below creating a maintenance chore?

Or anyone else, actually, who might have answers.
#8 Mike on 2017-05-18 15:04 (Reply)
Mine runs up an old laundry line pole in the middle of the yard. I fastened a pole to this so the pole was a cross. The wisteria grew around it in a mushroom shape and makes for good shade to sit under with lots of foliage. Birds like it as a tall thicket.

The maintenance for me comes from trimming up the hanging branches every couple weeks because I like to walk under it. Pretty minor. Without trimming I think it would turn into a tall bush from the ground up. Also, runners can come up from a long way out. Not a problem if it's grass that gets mowed.
#8.1 Jack Walter on 2017-05-18 16:39 (Reply)
Looked at a home for sale last year and the wisteria had taken hold of a pergola, in fact it was pulling it over to the side by about 8 inches and if someone hasn't taken care of it yet the pergola may be down on the ground.
#9 JC on 2019-05-21 21:13 (Reply)
Stick to the native wisteria, it is much less invasive and aggressive.
#10 Andrew Stanton on 2019-05-22 11:16 (Reply)
Planting wisteria is a reliable way to destroy any brick structure. Doesn't take that long either.
#11 Ben david on 2019-05-22 11:37 (Reply)
Just a pretty weed that, if left untrimmed, will kill better trees and plants
#12 KB on 2019-05-22 11:58 (Reply)
My upper-class home town had a gift shop called the Wisteria House. Because of that I grew up assuming Wisteria was a desirable shrub.
#13 LP on 2019-05-22 17:47 (Reply)
I used to have a back yard full of it, all the way around the perimeter, in fairly steady state of blooming all summer after the first dazzling spring bloom. It was a vigorous heirloom variety. When we built the new house in a different town, I brought along a healthy sprig of it for our new lamppost, and it now has a trunk that is bigger than my forearm. Blooms like crazy in early spring and fills the yard with a wonderful light fragrance, and then it continues blooming sporadically throughout the summer. The commenters are right though, it's an aggressive grower and sends out runners everywhere. Plant wisely, where it's easy to keep trimmed. It is fun to braid stalks of the stuff in a 5 or 7-strand pattern, it will then form a very pretty upright trunk and a mushroom top.
#14 Aggie on 2019-05-22 18:53 (Reply)
Looking at this with sheer envy. We've had a cold spring and our Mayday tree (so-called because it usually blooms on or before 1st May) took a couple of extra weeks before even thinking of poking out a few timid blossoms. Everything late this year, though the grass is happy.
#15 Frances on 2019-05-23 01:21 (Reply)
Same weekend every year, eh? So much for climate change.
#16 ruralcounsel on 2023-05-13 19:52 (Reply)
I hate that vine. I love the native wisteria, but that is not what I am dealing with. At the estate I take care of it, the thing blooms every year a week Before the owner arrives and then I spend all summer corralling it while they complain about how it doesn't flower. On my property, it has escaped from the neighbors (who have since gotten rid of it) and has infested my hedgerow, which was sumac, sassafras, cherry, and dogwood. And is now wisteria. I have mowed sprouts 50 to 80 feet out from the hedgerow in the horses' paddocks, opportunistically sprouting near a fence line.
#17 ACH (Link) on 2023-05-13 19:54 (Reply)
I used to think wisteria was beautiful. Then I moved to South Carolina. It's everywhere. It takes over. It's hard to destroy. And, now that I have to go through a huge, enormous tunnel of it gone berserk in order to leave our subdivision, I learned that I'm allergic to it. When it's in bloom, I'm in a misery. Every time I have to go through that massive stand of it, I feel like I'm going to die.
#18 Lee Also on 2023-05-13 21:29 (Reply)
It is a weed unless you can mow around it
#19 Bird Dog on 2023-05-14 07:08 (Reply)
I prune our wisteria with a heavy duty weed wacker and a step ladder 3-4 times per growing season. Roundup is good to keep runners from spreading along the ground. All vegetative-no reproductive.
#20 benniebob (Link) on 2024-05-12 06:31 (Reply)
I thought I had seen invasive wisteria back in NYC.

Then I moved to Israel - with no frost to stop it, it just keeps going.

Not worth the brief flowering period - makes lots of litter.
#21 BenDavid on 2024-05-12 13:49 (Reply)
I used to think wisteria was so beautiful. Until I moved here, where it grows in to this huge massive things. And I'm allergic. I get so sick come wisteria blooming time.
#22 Lee Also on 2024-05-12 15:55 (Reply)
Saw my comment some years ago; same this year. It's Mother's Day and the Mayday (struggling but still alive as it's a good 70 years old) is just putting out its first tentative blossoms.
#23 Frances on 2024-05-12 21:25 (Reply)

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