Planting, Growing, and Pruning Wisteria
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Wisteria blooms vigorously in spring, producing clusters of lilac-hued flowers on new growth. In late July, or after flowers have faded, it’s time to prune. Learn more about growing and caring for wisteria vines.
About Wisteria
Wisteria is a high-climbing, long-lived vining plant with cascades of blue to purple flowers that look spectacular hanging from a pergola or archway in spring and early summer. However, this vine is a fast and aggressive grower—often reaching 30+ feet long—and is known to grow quite heavy. Wisteria vines will work their way into any crook or cranny they can reach, so it’s advised not to plant them too near your home.
Wisteria flowers are beautifully fragrant, providing a feast for the senses. After flowering, a brown, bean-like pod stays on the plant until winter. Blooms only appear on new growth.
Note: Plant wisteria with caution! All parts of the wisteria plant contain substances called lectin and wisterin, which are toxic to pets, livestock, and humans. These toxins can cause anything from nausea and diarrhea to death if consumed in large amounts.
Is Wisteria an Invasive Plant?
Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) and Japanese wisteria (Wisteria floribunda) are not native to North America and are considered invasive species in some states. The native wisteria species, American wisteria (Wisteria frutescens) and Kentucky wisteria (Wisteria macrostachya), are great alternatives to the Asian species, so if you’re planning on adding a new wisteria to your garden, we suggest that you go with one of the North American species.
Wondering how to tell the difference between the Asian and North American species?
Asian wisteria plants are aggressive growers with fuzzy seed pods, while North American wisteria plants are not quite as aggressive in their growing habits and have smooth seed pods and fruits, as well as more-or-less cylindrical, bean-shaped seeds. Another difference is that American and Kentucky wisteria’s flowers appear after the plant has leafed out in the late spring, whereas the Chinese wisteria’s blooms appear before its foliage.
Planting
When to Plant Wisteria
- Plant in the spring or fall while the plant is dormant.
- Wisteria can be grown from seed, but those grown from seed often take quite a few years to reach maturity and produce flowers. It’s recommended to purchase established wisteria plants or start from a cutting.
Where to Plant Wisteria
- Plant in full sun. Though wisteria will grow in partial shade, it probably won’t flower. Sunlight is essential.
- Plant wisteria in fertile, moist, but well-draining soil.
- Add compost if your soil is in poor condition; otherwise, wisteria will grow in most soils. Learn more about soil amendments and preparing soil for planting.
- Choose a site away from other plants, as wisteria grows quickly and can easily overtake its neighbors.
- Wisteria is also known for growing onto (and into) nearby structures, such as houses, garages, sheds, and so on. We strongly recommend not planting wisteria too close to your home!
- Wisteria vines require a very sturdy structure to climb on, such as a metal or wooden trellis or pergola. Mature plants have been known to get so heavy that they break their supports, so plan with care and build your structure with hefty materials.
How to Plant Wisteria
- Dig a hole as deep as the root ball and 2 to 3 times as wide.
- Space plants 10 to 15 feet apart.
Growing
Caring for Wisteria
- Each spring, apply a layer of compost under the plant and a 2-inch layer of mulch to retain moisture and control weeds.
- Some gardeners swear by phosphorus to aid with flowering. Scratch a couple of cups of bone meal into the soil in the spring and then add some rock phosphate in the fall. Similar claims of increased flowering have been made about liquid tomato or rose fertilizer. Read more about soil amendments.
- Water your plants if you receive less than one inch of rain each week. (To know how much rain you are getting, you can place an empty food can outside and measure the depth of water with a measuring stick.)
- For more blooms, try cutting back the rampant shoots every two weeks during the summer.
Pruning Wisteria
Pruning is the secret to good flowering, as wisteria only blooms on new wood.
Prune established wisteria in July or after flowers have faded. Cut side shoots to about 6 inches long, while retaining the climbing branches. This will create lots of short spurs all along the main vines. In late winter, prune the same side shoots, leaving two or three buds on each.
Just don’t make the mistake of never pruning. Do the following at any time:
- When pruning an established but untamed plant, be ruthless. Cut the stem several feet below the desired height; there will be an upsurge of new vegetative (not flowering) shoots in the following spring. Give it space to grow and full sun.
- Remove suckers from the base of the plant to control spread.
- Remove seedpods at will or leave a few for winter interest. If you bring any indoors for display/decoration, be aware that the ambient warmth of the home may cause them to explode.
- Do you have a new wisteria? Cut the vine back severely right after planting. Then, the next year, cut the main stem or stems back to 3 feet of the previous season’s growth. Once the framework is full size, shorten further extension growth in midsummer to where growth began for that season.
- Get more tips for pruning wisteria.
When Your Wisteria Won’t Bloom
Wisteria are notorious for taking a long time to bloom. Don’t expect flowers for 2 to 3 years after planting. Some readers have sworn by this method of “shocking” the plant to spur on blooming:
- Take a shovel and drive it 8 to 10 inches into the ground about a foot and a half away from the wisteria’s main trunk to slice into some of the roots.
- Damage about half of the roots and the bush will be shocked into reproduction (flowering).
- Don’t worry—it’s difficult to hurt this rampantly-growing, unrestrained, often-invasive plant!
Failure to flower may also be due to frigid winter temperatures that have injured the flower buds, excessive nitrogen fertilizer that has promoted foliage over flowers, and/or insufficient sunlight.
Native Wisteria
If you are located in North America, consider planting a species of wisteria native to the continent, such as:
- American wisteria (Wisteria frutescens), which grows in Zones 5 to 9. It’s native to a range of states covering Virginia to Texas, southeast to Florida and north up through New York, Iowa, and Michigan. The vine grows 25 to 30 feet long with shiny, dark-green leaves and large, drooping lilac or purple-blue flower clusters which appear after the plant has leafed out. The blooms will only appear on new wood. However, note that the flowers tend to be more lightly fragrant than the Asian wisterias’ flowers.
- Kentucky wisteria (Wisteria macrostachya), which grows in Zones 4 to 9. This late-season bloomer is native to the southeastern U.S. and is similar to American wisteria (it is sometimes considered a variety or subspecies of American wisteria). Kentucky wisteria bears mildly fragrant bluish-purple flowers after growing only two to three years, making it the quickest wisteria to bloom.
- ‘Blue Moon’ is an extra-hardy cultivar of native Kentucky wisteria, with showy, silvery-blue clusters. It blooms in late spring or early summer. It’s cold hardy to -30°F.
Non-Native Wisteria
- Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) and Japanese wisteria (Wisteria floribunda) are non-native, invasive species, so we do not recommend them for North American gardens, despite the fact that they are regularly sold at nurseries and garden centers. They are hardy in Zones 5 to 9 and are capable of growing 30 to 60 feet in length (and beyond in the Southern U.S.). Two common varieties of Japanese wisteria include:
- ‘Honbeni’ (syn. ‘Honko’): popular, bears clusters of pink flowers in late spring
- ‘Alba’ (syn. ‘Shiro Noda’): bears lovely clusters of pure-white flowers in late spring
Catherine Boeckmann
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Hmmm. Get used to it? Wisteria, as you describe, takes over—and tales of takeovers abound here (see below). You need to have the sheers handy at (almost) all times. Or put it somewhere where it has room to roam. About the roots sprouting elsewhere: It may be that you trimmed the “top” (aboveground) portion in such a way/amount that the plant just decided to grow in another direction.
Try this: Because wisteria will continue to sprout after it has been cut, it should be cut back early in the season, cutting sprouts every few weeks until the fall. This will stop growth of existing vines and prevent seed production. When you do have to prune, just cut climbing or trailing vines as close to the root as possible. Immediately apply a 25% solution of glyphosate or triclopyr to the stem. The best time to apply an herbicide is in the spring and summer when wisteria is actively growing.
One of our editors wanted to enjoy its beauty, too, so planted it near her house, beside an arbor that was about 8 feet high. She wove the tendrils/new stems through the arbor and pruned the vine regularly (a few times/season). One day she discovered that a stem was hiding up under the bottom panel of the house’s aluminum siding. She pulled it out. And pulled and pulled … getting about 20 feet of vine. Soon after she decided to eliminate the plant—and that meant getting all of the root so that, as you experienced, it would not come up several feet away. There is a hydrangea in the spot now.
I had wisteria around a "dead" tree, planted by the first owner. It was very aggressive, I mean, IS very. Amazing vine, it was about 10 feet tall, and fanned out at the top like an evil Madusa plant. The trunk was two or more main vines that merged (by appearance), and was about 12" in diameter. Smart too. It would send out feeders, growing horizontally toward other trees. I wonder how it knew there were branches there, suspected the root system knew somehow. Yes, I think it gave me nightmares too :) If it raced nearby branches, it would seat into the wood and suck the life from it. I know that sounds like a horror movie, but that is the only way to describe it.
When I decided to take it down, I discovered that it was the only thing holding the dead tree up. That tree literally crumbled in your hands. But, it was erect only because the vines wrapped around it and held it.
We ground the stump, hauled all away, doused the area with weed killer and covered with rubber. I continued to find roots through the perimeter beds in the yard, would dig roots from under the grass several feet long - as it was killing the grass. It has tamed some, but I still find new shoots. So, short of digging up the entire yard, a couple of feet down, I do not know what I can do - just live with it.
I suspect you must be an avid, dedicated gardener, to be able to maintain some varieties. I suppose mine is of the Asian variety.
My first Wisteria arrived in the mail today.
It's very small. 2 inches of trunk with several long leafy vines.
Should I put it in a pot and let it grow or go ahead and plant it
in ground?
It sounds like this is a bareroot wisteria. If so, you should see twining stems. They transplant easily in the ground. You’ll need to first prepare the planting area and be sure to put in your supports before planting, whether it’s against a wall is to train them as an espalier or a pergola. Prior to planting add plenty of well rotted manure or garden compost to the soil to improve soil fertility and drainage. Plant so that the soil level matches the soil mark on your plant. Look for a soil mark towards the base of the stem which indicates what depth it was planted in the ground at the nursery. This is usually found a little below the graft point—a bulge in the stem where the main plant is grafted to the rootstock. Water your wisteria well after planting to settle the soil and water regularly during the first year to help roots get established.
Thanks for your insight.
I decided that I'd like to train it as a standard. However, nearly all videos or instructions begin with a fairly good sized plant.
It has a two inch stem and several leaves one long, vigorous vine.
Do I choose the healthy vine to stake up and trim the rest away? Will it thicken into a trunk and sprout new leaves?
It's such a eager little plant. I almost want to just plant it like it is and let it do its thing. ( I appreciate tenacity) lol
Whatever I decide, I just wanted to thank-you for answering my question.
We have 3 wisteria vines all 15 years old. We live in Colorado at less than 4000 ft. They were all doing great till the last month. Now the one that is in the middle is dying after it bloomed.
They all receive the same amount of water and sun .
Please help.
Our Wisteria is well established and produces beautiful flowers every year. However, our problem is that is also produces hundreds of shoots which wrap around everything, including climbing roses, TV aerial and the gutters. When we trim them back, which is essential to prevent them damaging things, they just seem to produce even more shoots and it is a constant battle all summer to keep it under control! Any suggestions please?
Indeed, wisteria is highly aggressive! Sizable trees have been killed by vining wisteria. And wisteria produces new shoots if cut back or trimmed so you’re actually helping the vine grow more shoots.
Because wisteria will continue to sprout after it has been cut, it should be cut back early in the season, cutting sprouts every few weeks until the fall. This will stop growth of existing vines and prevent seed production. When you do have to cut, just cut climbing or trailing vines as close to the root as possible. Immediately apply a 25% solution of glyphosate or triclopyr to the stem. The best time to apply an herbicide is in the spring and summer when wisteria is actively growing.
When I lived in SC there was a stand of tall tall Pines approx. 60 ft tall that was 132 ft wide and there was Wisteria growing from top to bottom all the way across them. It was a lovely site. No one ever pruned them they grew crazy. The sun was only on them for about 3 hours in the morning. Rest of the day was all shady. Now i am back in Northern Michigan and I have a Wisteria I want to plant and train to climb up some Pines that are primarily in the woods next to my home. How do I train it to climb? Should I wait until it is tall enough and viney enough to reach before I plant it in the ground? Should I place some string around the bottom of the tree and then later carefully remove the string after the Wisteria takes a good hold? Thanks.
WE have a wisteria in the front yard, it is huge growing in on itself. It looks like it is getting ready to flower - it has shoots all over the yard. When and how should we prune and try to train it now to a fence - it desperately needs a cut back as it is over and over in on itself. It has been left without care for years. I can send pics if needed.
