Help please! Wisteria not flowering and out of control.

netster

We have been in our house for nearly 3 years now and the wisteria around our front door has never flowered. I thought it might have been because we had it cut back hard when we moved in in Oct 2016. Not flowered since. I also used to cut it back quite regularly, so I'm not sure if this has affected it also. 
I have been advised to just let it grow this year and hopefully it will flower next year, but it is getting out of control now as shown in the picture! I have searched on the internet and am getting conflicting advice as to what to do. I really have no experience about wisteria's and looked on the internet at what the flower buds should look like and I can't actually see any at all! I'd love it to bloom, but it is taking over the front of the house now. 

Please could someone advise me what would be the best course of action to hopefully get some blooms? Thank you. 

fidgetbones

Cut every new shoot to 7 leaflets now, and then harder to 2 buds in February.

Obelixx

Wisteria needs 2 pruning sessions as Fidget implies; one in July/August and one in Jan/Feb.    We inherited 2 rather exhuberant wisterias when we moved here in October 2016.   We waited till after leaf fall so we could clearly see the bare stems and then just removed all the long whippy ones and any that were heading up under gutters or trying to invade under roof tiles.

This pair flower fairly early as it's warmer here and then have a second flush in July/August so I'm not precious about the cutting back to 7 leaflets in summer.  I just cut back anything that's getting between me and the door and anything flapping around in the wind or tries to ambush me when I walk past.   The winter prune is when I do major shaping as the stems are bare and I can see where they're heading.

You could remove whippy stems now and then trim your bare stems in winter to grow along their framework and then cut remaining shoots back to 2 buds then give it a feed of slow release blood, fish and bone, rose fertiliser or similar to help it flower.   Repeat each year.  If it's never flowered it may need a bit more timebut if it has flowered in the past it should flower next spring.

Have a read of this info - https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=242 



 

netster

Thank you both for your advice. Fingers crossed for some flowers next year. 

Obelixx

Let us know if it works.

MuddyFork

If it's necessary to do all this pruning how do Wisterias ever flower in the wild?  I've given up on mine after 15 years of pruning and no flowers.  Now the bu**er won't die even with the use of SBK.

Hostafan1

MuddyFork said:

If it's necessary to do all this pruning how do Wisterias ever flower in the wild?  I've given up on mine after 15 years of pruning and no flowers.  Now the bu**er won't die even with the use of SBK.

I guess in the wild they grow like mad until a given size then flower. 
Flowering is often a defence mechanism after " attack" . 
Adam Frost mentioned a nice "rule of thumb"   "7 and 2".
 In July ( 7th month ) cut to 7 buds, in February ( 2nd month ) cut back to 2 buds.

netster

Obelixx said:

Let us know if it works.

Will do. Fingers crossed!