Wisteria knot

chat2elena

Hello, we’ve inherited a wisteria in our new home garden. I pruned it in July last year and it’s flowering beautifully. Should I be more ruthless in pruning so as to untangle the branches, it looks like it’s trying to strangle itself even though it doesn’t seem to affect the flowering. Thank you

Dave Humby

Unless it’s new growth you’ll be unlikely to unwind it. Wisteria goes very hard. Normal pruning advice is to remove crossing limbs etc but Wisteria does this as part of its natural growth and doesn’t suffer adversely for it. Have a look on You Tube. There is lots of simple to follow advice on pruning. The key is the winter prune. I do mine in January to reduce the shoots off the laterals to 2-3 buds. This promotes flower growth over foliage. You’ll find you also get some excessive growth shoots though the summer which I normally reduce back to around 6 buds as I go. 

chat2elena

Thank you, that’s great I thought I might have to severely cut it back to get branches free but as long as it’s not doing any harm I’ll just do the summer & winter prune.

Obelixx

Wisterias naturally twine and the knotted stems quickly merge to become one so leave well alone unless you want to restrict its stems because they're heading the wrong way or too far.   Yours looks fine to me.  

See here for pruning info - https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=242 

Asarum

I think old twisted stems are part of the charm of wisteria.  There are some very old, gnarled ones around. They will be fine.  Look for pictures online.

chat2elena

Thank you all, I also think it looks lovely & glad it’s ok

fidgetbones

Mother in Laws house had a very old wisteria. It looked like the trunk was made up of multiple dripped candles. Wish I had a pic but it looked really gnarly and characterful.