This tends to be a mysterious plant
for the landscape. Some wisteria will bloom from the first season
after it is planted while others may grow for many years without a
single bloom. Gardeners have tried many different techniques to try
to stimulate flower production and pruning is one of them.
There are two species of this vine
that are grown including the Japanese wisteria (Wisteria
floribunda) and Chinese wisteria (Wisteria
sinensis). Both types bloom before the leaves emerge in the
spring. Some people claim that pruning is the answer to making the
vines bloom.
If wisteria vines are pruned
extensively during the dormant season, they tend to produce a lot of
foliage but few flowers. The recommendation is to prune the long,
leggy vine sections in July. Cut the shoots back about one third to
one half of their length to encourage the production of short spurs
to bear the following year's blooms.
Wisterias can also be trained into a
tree or free standing form. Choose a single vine trunk and support
it on a post. Then cut off everything while allowing the vine to
form an "umbrella" canopy over the top of the trunk.
Perhaps the most common type of
ornamental vine in the landscape are the various species and hybrid
cultivars of
Some vines like
honeysuckle (
