Which wisteria?
An Overview of Chinese Wisteria (Wisteria sinensis)
This beautiful vine is vigorous and should be grown with caution.
Love wisteria but worried about its wayward habits? Plantsman Graham Rice offers advice on which to choose and how to grow them
Wisterias can be as infuriating as they are beautiful. At their peak, their long colourful cascades of flowers can be stunning and almost everyone who sees one in its prime would like one for their garden. The problem? Well, 6m (20ft) is nothing for a wisteria so for many gardens they’re just far too big. Or are they?
There are two factors to consider that will help you grow your own wisteria: 1) Choose the right variety; 2) Prune it regularly.
Always buy a named variety. Unnamed plants may have been grown from seed and take fifteen years to flower – life’s too short. 14 varieties of wisteria have been awarded the Award of Garden Merit (AGM), and there are many more, so there’s plenty of choice in purple-blues, blues, pinks and white and many are fragrant – a few are even double.
Varieties of Wisteria sinensis have the benefit of flowering in May and June before the leaves develop and start to mask the display. ‘Prolific’ is outstanding, living up to its name with 30cm strings of bluish-violet flowers that all open together for the most dramatic effect. ‘Jako’ is a strongly-fragrant white, ‘Amethyst’ is reddish-violet; all are deal on a house wall.
The longest racemes of flowers belong to the fragrant lilac W. floribunda‘ Multijuga’, they can be 1m or more in length but the plant needs to be allowed to grow high to show them off. Scaling a huge ladder to prune is not everyone’s idea of gardening. I once saw ‘Multijuga’ allowed to scramble up, unpruned, a mature Lombardy poplar – that was a sight.
Also consider ‘Domino’, whose two-tone lilac-blue racemes are among the shortest, but appear on very young plants.
The largest individual flowers come with W. brachybotrys, although they come in short racemes, and the scent of many varieties is exceptional. The plants, however, are amongst the most vigorous. ‘Showa-beni’ is the best pink of all, ‘Murasaki-kapitan’ (photo below right) is an exceptionally fragrant violet-blue.
Finally, look out for two hybrids, both with two-tone violet flowers: ‘Burford’ (above left) has flowers in 45cm (18in) racemes, ‘Caroline’ has short racemes but is one of the earliest.
Pruning is necessary twice a year to promote flowering and to contain the plants in the space available. Follow the RHS pruning recommendations.
And there’s another approach: train your wisteria as a standard, it can even be grown in a large container. Those RHS pruning recommendations outline how to go about it.
By Graham Rice
Chinese wisteria (scientific name, Wisteria sinensis) is a deciduous perennial vine with a twining growth habit. It needs regular pruning to keep its growth under control and is regarded as an invasive species in many places. The plant’s name is sometimes spelled wisataria, in keeping with the anatomist Casper Wistar, from whom the plant takes its name. Sierra Madre, California holds an annual “Wistaria Festival” every March, during which visitors can view a vine that is 111 years old, weighs approximately 250 tons and bears over 1 million lavender blossoms.
Description
Chinese wisteria, like all members of the wisteria group, is a stunning bloomer, bearing large, drooping clusters of fragrant flowers, usually bluish-purple, lavender, or mauve in colour. Bloom time is usually in mid-spring to early summer. A few kinds bear white blooms, such as silky wisteria (W. brachybotrys ‘Shiro-kapitan’). W. sinensis ‘Alba’ also bears white flowers.
Chinese wisteria is a vigorous climber that can easily grow to 25 feet. Trellises and other supports must be very sturdy because the mature vines are very heavy and can break apart flimsy supports. The flowers are rabbit-proof (rabbits tend not to eat any part of the plant, in fact). This plant is deer-resistant, as well.
Botanical Information
Chinese wisteria is part of the pea family, as evidenced by the velvety seed pods that appear after the flowers fade. The plant is native to parts of China and is generally hardy in the U.K. Chinese wisteria can take up to 20 years to mature enough to produce flowers, but once it has matured, this plant it is very long-lived; it can live up to 100 years.
Preferred Growing Conditions
Chinese wisteria, like its cousins, prefers well-drained soil that is made rich by adding compost. While many wisterias prefer lots of sun, Chinese wisteria has good shade tolerance, although best flowering occurs only when it gets partial to full sun.
Landscape Uses
Because Chinese wisteria is such a vigorous grower, experts advise against letting them climb up a porch or the side of your house. Instead, let them grow on a garden arbour (link What Is the Difference Between a Pergola and an Arbour) away from the house. Such arbours, roofed by Chinese wisteria plants, are a perfect focal point for English cottage gardens.
Young plants can take many years to mature to the point where they bloom profusely, so you may want to shop for older (and more expensive) plants if quick blooms are desired.
Universal Images Group/Getty Images
Growing and Caring for Wisteria
Wisteria needs very little in the way of care, other than frequent and vigorous pruning to keep the vines under control. The plant will send out runners that can quickly overwhelm nearby structures. Feeding is usually unnecessary for this plant, but regular watering is recommended.
If you have trouble getting the vines to flower (this plant’s most common care problem), there are a number of methods you can use to encourage flowering. You can begin by changing the fertilizer that you use (a high-phosphorus fertilizer may promote blooming). More importantly, change the way that you do your pruning. Heavy pruning tends to promote earlier and more prolific flowering.
To train wisteria vines, choose a single upright stem to attach to a vertical support, then religiously remove any side shoots as they appear, forcing the plant into upward growth. Pruned correctly, wisteria will form a beautiful overhead shade canopy. Once the plant reaches the height you want, vigorously trim the tips of the plant to stunt its further growth.
Warnings
In much of North America, particularly on the east coast where conditions resemble that of the plant’s native environment in China, Wisteria sinensis is listed among invasive plants. All parts of the plant contain a toxin known as wisterin that can cause vomiting and diarrhea; growers should be wary of pets and children eating the flowers or seed pods. poisonous plants.
Related Species
Two closely related species are the Japanese wisteria (Wisteria floribunda) and the American wisteria (Wisteria frutescens). Like Chinese wisteria, the Japanese species is known to be invasive, but its flowers are considerably more spectacular. It requires more sun than sinensis and is sometimes trained in Bonsai forms.
American wisteria is a smaller species, growing only two-thirds as long as the Chinese and Japanese forms. Although its flowers are less spectacular, the plants produce flowers at a younger age than Chinese or Japanese wisteria. The American variety is recommended for landscape use because it is much less invasive.
By David Beaulieu