Pruning a wisteria

crazyflower

I've had my Wisteria about 7 years but it wasn't trained properly,  I would like to cut it almost to the ground, I have read on the internet that you can do this though I will lose a few years of flowers. Is this true, can I cut it right back to the ground? It said this is the right time to do it.  Or how far back do u think I should cut it, I don't mind losing a few years of flowers, it needs to be retrained. Thanks.

Dovefromabove

Is it grafted?  Whereabouts is the graft?

crazyflower

Hi Dove, I've just taken a photo of it, hope it's uploaded ok, u can see my problem, I think it's grafted isn't it? It flowered within a year or so and has flowered well every year but its in a difficult place to get to and it was just left to do its own thing, which is very wrong of me.

BobTheGardener

If it's grafted, it looks to be just above soil level.  If you want to train it up wires attached to the wall, I would prune it where the straight red lines are, below.  This will remove the section which is growing away from the wall (and which already may be damaged where the red circle is) and leaves a couple of branches, one of which will become the new main stem.  The growth along the soil at the bottom may be from below the graft so remove that too.

crazyflower

Thanks for advice, you've both told me cut it in different places, I've taken a new pic showing a new shoot growing, should I cut it above that and hope that I get more shoots growing from the bottom? Then I could cut it down further if new shoots start to grow above the roots. It was supported a bit but the metal support fell down and the wisteria! It isn't my wall, its neighbours garage so didn't want to start putting screws in it, but I've got a new neighbour now and he said I could but I may get some posts put in and wires. The base of the wisteria would be hidden by shrubs.

I've just looked at that bit that's damaged, there's a few small creepy crawlers in it, should I saw it off or 'bandage it up', is it Bordeaux powder I put on?

I've read that u can take cuttings from wisterias, is it worth it? Do u get good flowering? Incase this doesn't survive. 

How old is that wisteria Doghouse? Lovely, pity I didn't train it like that.

crazyflower

Thanks a lot, will do.