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I may not have the prettiest Wisteria you’ve ever seen, but you can’t say it isn’t floriferous. Last year was different. I had at most two or three blooms on the entire tree. Visiting my in-laws was discouraging, because their Wisteria is amazing–it winds along the perimeter of their roof for yards and yards with many, many blooms. I was jealous and frustrated. Maybe I had a different species? Maybe it was because my wisteria has been cut back to be a tree rather than a vining plant?
Fortunately, my good mother-in-law was willing to share the secret: Wisteria must be tortured before it flowers. She said something about hitting hers with a heavy chain. Weird. But then I remembered how as an overly devoted 12 yr old I had killed my Nasturtiums with kindness–only realizing after the fact that giving them good soil, plenty of water and lots of care is the worst thing you could do for them. Some plants just don’t reproduce until they feel threatened. If you want flowers, you don’t baby them, you stress them!
So, last summer, I got out my big pruning shears and my Wisteria tree was quaking, it was so stressed. I walked up and put a couple of big gouges in its trunk. Sorry innocent one, but you do want to propagate don’t you?
I forgot about it. Winter came, and I hibernated.
Now:
Last summer’s gouges are almost healed. I suppose I should gouge it again after it finishes flowering this year?
Comments
2 Responses to “Wisteria gone Wild”
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It’s just beautiful. I’d never heard that some plants need to be stressed to flourish, but it appears to have worked. Lovely!
I think your wisteria is great–so many more blooms than ours! It needs a little shaping, but other than that, it’s wonderful.