Re: Wisteria pruning - mastered



> Thankyou Trevor,

    For your clear training instructions. This growing season I will keep a more watchful eye on those long streamers, cutting them back as you describe. +And+ for the clear description of the two types of blooms. I was only aware of the bloom spurs. Do you shorten these during winter pruning as some experts advise?

> . Our method was to survey the plant carefully to identify which single growth would be kept in reserve as the 'safe' viable bit. chainsawed leaving only that part of the trunk with the 'safe' growth attached.

By this "safe growth" do you mean you traced out one trunk, to branch, to lateral, to green growth, marked it, then began to remove the rest?

> It took weeks for the work crew to pull, tug, yank, cut, saw, prune and otherwise remove the wayward growths from the surrounding mature Lombardy poplars, tulip trees, ginkgos and lindens. There were hundreds of metres of it much of it as thick, and thicker, than a man's fore-arm.

I can only imagine what a formidable task this must have been!

> Next the ruined pergola was removed and a new one erected of 2 inch steel irrigation pipes set in strong cement footings. We waited then for signs of regrowth, fortunately it came
> very strongly

Where did it come from?

> and we were able to take charge of the 'new' plant as it developed, making it go where it was wanted - and only where it was wanted. Had it not done so we would have relied of the 'safe' bough to regenerate the plant.

I hope I have this concept of the "safe bough"! It must have been very long. Did you shorten it at all?

The plants are tough and very resilient; so much so I'd venture it is almost impossible to kill them unless through frost, freezing, drowning or conditions generally being unsuitable for these temperate region plants.

Do you remember how soon blooming was restored?

Big Thankyou! And some "overgrown wisteria" growers will thankyou as well! Please put this information in your new book. Absolutely no one talks about methods of handling overgrown plants.     Jan
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Jan Smithen,               gardening teacher
                           Los Angeles County Arboretum
jansmithen@earthlink.net
Sunset zone : 19
USDA zone : 10

Visit the Victorian Rose Garden website at :
http://victorian-rose.org/
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