Wisteria success

In March 2019 I collected these Chinese wisteria from the overgrown side yard of a friends cabin on a mountain in western North Carolina. The first 2 photos shows them still in their native soil just down off the mountain. They went into plastic nursery pots in a mix of about 1/3 each pumice, haydite, and pine bark. The first year they pushed out buds and grew some new branches.



2020 was another year of growth plus I potted up the larger one in a deep ceramic pot. After a mid-summer cut back the large one threw out a handful of blossoms in late July.



2021 brought a bunch of flower buds on each plant—13 on the small one and 25 on the larger one. I will have to move them into the garage since we have a couple of nights in the mid-20s coming this week and I know the flowers wouldn’t make it.



I am pretty sure that the reason I got flowers so quickly is that these plants were well over 10 years old to start with before I collected them. I’ll have more photos once the cold wave has passed, they are back on their stands, and the flowers have opened. I am hoping for a nice display this year. Once they finish blooming I may repot the smaller one, I didn’t already because I didn’t want it to abort the flower buds.

NIIIIICEEE!!!

I just rolled down I-77 the other day and saw what I believe were Wisteria all over the place. Was that what I saw?
I have one in a pot at home which has yet to flower for me. Good job on yours.

Here’s an update on the flower display. My smaller one is pushing out a little ahead of the big one. Interestingly one side of the trunk died so I decided to tilt it at a sharp angle. Eventually I will carve out the underside dead wood before it rots out. I can already see where the cambium is starting to thicken along the edges of the dead wood. I doubt I will use this pot, its just holding it at that angle for me for now.

Sorry about the distracting foliage of my A. shirasawanum in the background. It took the two nights of 25 degree freezes last week without any damage and is putting on a show as well.



Now for a look at the big boy. It has 23 flowers this year and they are extending and opening nicely. The smell is very fragrant which makes me glad I only have the 2 plants in pots instead of a full grown specimen filling the trees in the yard!

Underdog said:

I just rolled down I-77 the other day and saw what I believe were Wisteria all over the place. Was that what I saw?

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I am not sure where route 77 is, though I believe I remember a route of that number crossing NC. But I can tell you I have seen wisterias that covered acres.

Those are amazing! Thanks for sharing.

Time for an update I guess. Back around the first of March I had these out on the benches and they had pushed flower buds again. Well that was one of those weekends when the temps dropped from the 60s back below freezing. I had moved everything else into the garage but figured I’d put these in the garage in the morning before the temps wre predicted to drop below freezing. When I woke up I noticed the water in the bird bath was frozen so I checked the temp and sure enough it was already 30 F. I moved them into the garage immediately but it was too late, the flower buds dropped off in a few days. I waited for weeks for the foliar buds to pop but was afraid they had died too. However the big plant popped buds in early April but the smaller one lagged. I had repotted it not long before the incident so feared the new roots had frozen and the tree might be dead. However, apparently wisteria are hard to kill as the small one finally popped buds this past week and shoots are now extending. Matter of fact both plants are pushing buds in greater profusion than ever before. I’ll post some photos tomorrow.

Cofga said:

Time for an update I guess. Back around the first of March I had these out on the benches and they had pushed flower buds again. Well that was one of those weekends when the temps dropped from the 60s back below freezing. I had moved everything else into the garage but figured I’d put these in the garage in the morning before the temps wre predicted to drop below freezing. When I woke up I noticed the water in the bird bath was frozen so I checked the temp and sure enough it was already 30 F. I moved them into the garage immediately but it was too late, the flower buds dropped off in a few days. I waited for weeks for the foliar buds to pop but was afraid they had died too. However the big plant popped buds in early April but the smaller one lagged. I had repotted it not long before the incident so feared the new roots had frozen and the tree might be dead. However, apparently wisteria are hard to kill as the small one finally popped buds this past week and shoots are now extending. Matter of fact both plants are pushing buds in greater profusion than ever before. I’ll post some photos tomorrow.

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Nice wisteria. FWIW, die back on larger collected trunks is not unusual. It's a problem and typically shows up on wisteria that were collected all at once and had significant root reduction. It can continue for a few years until the plant has stabilized.

Also, since it is an invasive species, it colonizes large areas in the wild in the eastern U.S. draping themselves over native trees and sometimes smothering them. Typically you can find such areas around this time of year when the wild plants bloom--watch for patches of blue driving around, particularly in suburban woodlots. Sometimes those large areas have some significant trunks underneath, most times you have a lot of smaller trunks under 4 inches or so. But if you find such a colony, it's worth a look for the larger ones (if you have permission to walk someone else's land.)

The big one is very strong and there was no dieback on it, I had to cut back some of the old branches to compact it a bit. However the smaller one only put out buds on one side and the other side died. So I removed the old bark there and repotted it at an angle with the dead section facing down and the new branches growing up at an angle. The only issue is it has some funky looking roots that I could not fit deep enough in the soil to hide them. I’ll get it a deeper pot next year or the one after.

First the big one

And the leaner

Are you sure these are Chinese? They look American to me.

Mikecheck123 said:

Are you sure these are Chinese? They look American to me.

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Yes, they are Chinese. Just look at the length of the blossoms, much too long for American. My neighbor has an American so I can easily see the difference.

Mikecheck123 said:

Are you sure these are Chinese? They look American to me.

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Chinese--MUCH more common than American and growth is spot on for Wisteria Sinensis. If you're in N. Va., it's about the time of year when Chinese wisteria makes its presence known when it blossoms. Down here in Lorton, it is EVERYWHERE...