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Wisteria in a container?

icj.4153icj.4153 Posts: 2
in Plants
Hi,
I’d like to plant a Wisteria tree to grow on my South facing wall. There’s currently paving around the whole of the house, extending around 3-4m out. 
My options are to either try to grow in a large container (80cm square), or cut a hole in the patio next to the front wall.
Firstly, how successful can the Wisteria be in a large pot, i.e. how tall can it grow?
If I cut out the patio, is there likely to be problems with the poor soil underneath?
Thanks

Posts

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,053
    If you can lift one slab and give the soil some major OOMPH to the soil, that'd be better. 
    Devon.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 29,145
    Wisteria will grow tall if trained that way but also horizontally.  There's one planted by the front gate and over an entrance arch at a holiday home up the road.  Some of it has grown the length of their garden and is now heading along the hedgerow round the next door field.  Fabulous but at least 60m so far.

    Much better to lift a slab or two, improve the soil with plenty of well-rotted manure and/or garden compost with added fertiliser and then plant in the ground.   Keep it watered, especially in its first year while it gets established.

    We have two here, both planted next to walls and causing no problems at all except when they try and sneak stems under the gutters or roof tiles.   Easy enough to cut those stems out.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
  • icj.4153icj.4153 Posts: 2
    Thanks for the replies. I was hoping it may be possible in a pot but looks like digging up the patio is the way to go.
    We have quite dense clay once you get much more that 12 inches under the topsoil. Do you think that will be a huge problem too, as I hear they like well drained soil? Thanks again!
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,052
    There is a dwarf wisteria called Amethyst Falls that is allegedly suitable to grow in a pot, kind of like a single-stemmed standard, but if you want it to cover an expanse of wall, better to get a usual type and plant in the ground if you can. In three years mine has developed fairly thick trunks and is covering a 5m expanse. It is in heavy clay on rock, shares a 1m2 space with a rose and a clematis and it seems to be happy. I dug in lots of compost and manure and keep it well-watered.
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,237
    You could compromise - break the corner off a slab, fill the hole with soil to ground level, and sit the pot on that. But cut the base of the pot out. Then treat it like a plant in a pot to begin with, eventually the roots will find their way down into the ground, under the slabs. You see enormous ones growing out of the crack between houses and pavements, so I assume the roots are as vigorously questing as the top growth...
  • gjautosgjautos Posts: 395
    Didn't Carol klein say her wisteria grows in a pot on her recent program? Or did i imagine that?
  • K67K67 Posts: 2,507
    gjautos said:
    Didn't Carol klein say her wisteria grows in a pot on her recent program? Or did i imagine that?
    No you didn't she also mentioned hydrangea petiolaris in a pot as well.
  • SuesynSuesyn Posts: 630
    Our neighbours found a wisteria growing through the floor boards when they bought their 18th century cottage. It did not survive the renovation. 
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