Show me your Wisteria?

Hyn Patty

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Today I found an outstanding wisteria 'Amethyst Falls' at my local Home Depot. I was bored, it was raining, and it was a rest day from packing. It was several vines close together and smothered with flower buds - and best of all, this cultivar is a /native/ plant to the United States so it's neither Japanese or Chinese. Both of which are very invasive here. This one is supposed to bloom much earlier from seed (first year!), does well as cuttings or air layering, and has smaller flower clusters with better color. So I figure it's perfect to train as bonsai.

If you have a bonsai wisteria, will you post photos and share it with us? Or just post a photo of your favorites from online? I can get a photo of mine tomorrow but I will need to think about how I want to train it. I'd love to twist and interlace the vines into more or less a single trunk but I need to think about it. I'd also like to air layer one particularly curly branch piece to train as a shohin or mame. I'd love some ideas and doing a search on 'wistera' on the forums oddly enough didn't bring up much.
 

Hyn Patty

Shohin
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I am surprised that doing searches on these as bonsai doesn't turn up hardly any at all with multiple twisted vines - since that is how I usually see them growing around here. I'd have thought that was a key attraction with them even more than the flowers, for bonsai, since the flowers don't last very long. The invasive Chinese wistera grows all over Georgia, gone wild, and they make the most amazing gnarly thick vines all twisted together.

Anyway, I manged to figure out how to get enough light indoors to snap a couple of shots. It's nothing impressive yet but I've been keeping an eye out for one of these with 5 or more vines in the same pot, and NOT GRAFTED, for ages. So that's why I am excited about this one. Chinese wisteria grows invasive all over the South but I have never managed to find anyone willing to let me dig some of it up and I don't really care to go around asking random strangers. I have been tempted to just stop along the road and dig but my husband always gives me hell - saying I already have too many plants. Well, neener on him! ;)

So for now I'll just enjoy the flowers on my Wisteria frutescens and work on some sketches for ideas on how I might train and cut it back after flowering. I will try to air layer or root the excess so I can get a second group of vines going for a smaller plant as well. I don't know how bendable these vines will be but I do have some very thick copper wire, if I can find it again. I'd still like a Chinese wisteria as well since it would bloom before the leaves come out.
 

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RobertB

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I have one thats been grown from cutting for about 6 yrs. The first 4 of which i had no idea what i was doing. Only within the past two years have I been actually starting to develop it. I havent got any big blooms yet but it does bloom each year with each year getting better. Its growing very good and im expecting next year to be real nice. There is some good info about these on the https://crataegus.com/ site.

I will post some pics tomorrow.
 

RobertB

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I also have a real nice one I am working out of the ground over a three year plan. I am two years into getting it prepped for lifting.
 

Hyn Patty

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That's one reason I like the variety I found - I'd been thinking about ordering one precisely because /not blooming/ isn't such an issue with the frutescens. This kind is remarked to bloom even the first year from seed (which I obviously haven't tested yet) and isn't such a pain in the arse like it's Asian cousins. But it's also not as vigorous a grower and not as invasive. Good to zone 5, too. There's not much need to graft it either, from what I have read. The leaves do come out before the flowers which may not appeal to those who must have the flowers first, without the leaves. If the plant is healthy, some leaves could be trimmed for a show perhaps.

Vin! Nice bending on your vine - I find that encouraging! I'm keen to see what I can get away with intertwining these vines and twisting them about. I should probably wait until it's flowered or I'm likely to know the flowers off while working on it.
 
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JosephCooper

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Wisteria are cool, and tough. I need one that can survive my torture methods.
 

Velodog2

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Mine is from a friend’s front yard where it was inappropriately used as a stand alone tree. The trunk was as big as my thigh when I dug it but I’ve been letting it get root bound and die back and rot such that there are actually two trunks now. It blooms every other year. 4BFE1E80-4B73-4373-8356-7EF5FF5DF9E9.jpegB121A974-CA52-4344-87D1-7C879C7C2B44.jpeg
 

Hyn Patty

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All three of these are very nice! I think I remember reading a post about your reworking yours, Darlene. Ambitious digging up such a big one, Velodog2. I bet that was some back breaking work. Very pretty in bloom!
 

RobertB

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Here is mine that I mentioned was grown from a cutting. Had some rot take over the middle of my trunk 2 years ago and have been trying to get that stabilized. Sorry for the pic. Its kind of hard to see.

wisteria.jpg
 

MrWunderful

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I have a few that I grew from seed from my father in law’s property. I have been letting them run wild for a few years (no flowers yet). I was hoping to chop back this winter. Does wisteria back bud well?
 

Velodog2

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All three of these are very nice! I think I remember reading a post about your reworking yours, Darlene. Ambitious digging up such a big one, Velodog2. I bet that was some back breaking work. Very pretty in bloom!
I was ten years younger so it wasnt too bad, except I was about two weeks out from having knee surgery which I was trying to be careful of. It ended up developing a nasty infection. I remember putting up a shade tent for this while wondering if maybe I was developing a fever. By that evening I was in the hospital with iv antibiotics. Good times.
 

RobertB

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look into the link I posted earlier in this thread. A lot of info within his posts and comment sections.
 

Hyn Patty

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https://crataegus.com//?s=wisteria

If you use his link as he posted it, you have to go input 'wisteria' in the search box you have to bring up. So here's a more direct listing of 'wisteria' as topic from that sight. It applies to the Asian species (which seems to be what most of you have) but not to mine. The variety is supposed to be easy blooming every year. If blooming is important to you and you just can't get yours to do it, you may want to change species and try getting a hold of 'Amethyst Falls' or another of the American cultivars. There's something to be said though for accepting the challenge of the Asian species (Chinese or Japanese) and the satisfaction if you can get it right, year after year. So, it's a choice. I hope it works though because I still want a Chinese wisteria too.

Specifically to encourage a non-blooming wistera, this article from that site may be useful: https://crataegus.com/2012/01/06/why-wont-my-wisteria-bloom/
 
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