wisteria advise - training young plant for pergola like structure
mary_rockland
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Featured Answer
Sort by:Oldest
Comments (13)
mary_rockland
5 years agoRelated Discussions
thinking of planting thornless rose vine by my pergola
Comments (30)I applaud your eagerness, virtu, but I think you need to consider quite a few things before you plant anything. About those pots. Christopher is correct, you need something that will stand up to your winters. Do not use terracotta or any kind of ceramic pots. They will freeze and shatter probably the first winter. Find the thick walled foam or resin pots and go WAY BIGGER than you think you need. Roses grown in pots occasionally have to be root pruned and given new soil or they'll die. Root pruning means you have to take the pot off and cut back the root ball. That's going to be difficult to do with a 10 ft rose. The bigger the pot the less often you'll have to do that. I have 50 some roses in pots and in my zone 6 I root prune about every 5 years but it also depends a lot on the vigor of the rose you're growing. Roses also require pruning some times and particularly in cold climates where there is winter kill. It's going to be very difficult to prune them on top of that structure. Another thing is the pergola itself. What is it made of and is it going to need regular maintenance of some kind? You'll have to be able to remove any growth for that. Some things can be lifted and laid down for maintenance and then put back up. I know I've done that with clematis before in order to paint some posts I have it growing on. Roses tend to be stiffer though and that could be harder to do. You said there was soil at the base of the posts. How big an area and how deep can you dig there? It looks like you have patio block. You may be able to plant them there if they are small plants to start with. If they can still get water through the patio blocks the roots will be able to spread out beneath it. They'll really do better planted in the ground and will be way less up keep for you too. My other concern is sunlight. Looks like there's a big tree near by. How much sun does the area get? Roses need at least 6 hours of full sun and more like 8 to grow and bloom well. I'm not trying do dissuade you. I agree with you that it would be gorgeous. I'm just trying to make sure you enter this well prepared. It's always better to know what to expect and be ready to deal with it....See MoreWhen to plant Blue Moon Wisteria?
Comments (6)Hi katie, lisanti. I grow both of the vines mentioned. The Wisteria is by far the more aggressive vine. I don't think anything would be necessary to help the Wisteria climb to the roof because the long, long, long shoots it sends out could be left to grow long, and then thrown up to the lanai roof. A couple nails on the supporting posts would also allow it to climb. The main disadvantage to the American Wisteria is that it is very aggressive, and like lisani says, it can take a year or 2 before you see this part. The Aristolochia. What can I say? My very favorite vine. Sure, the flowers are small, and if bloom or fragrance is the prime concern, then skip planting this one. But is covering an area with lush, shingled green is where you're at, then Aristolochia is unbeatable. When other vines have shifted to flowers and making terminal buds, this one is still growing. When summer drought has turned to cool fall, this one grows, covering any bare areas that resulted from the drought, re-greening the bare spots where the Pipevine Caterpillars have eaten. At the same time, it is a gentle vine, never growing more than a foot or so down (the tips die unless they are at least a little pointing up). It doesn't make the runners typical of Wisteria, so it can go years without pruning. The one drawback to the Aristolochia is the dieback in the winter. Many of the smaller vines die, leaving a tangle of small brown vines. During the summer, this dead material is invisible from the sunny side, but behind the vine (your inside room), the brown is visible. If you are a neat freak, this is not the vine to plant. On the plus side, you can cut it all down to the railing and it will re-green. The plant is like the tortoise of the fable. It doesn't jump out and start growing with the first ray of sun in the spring. But it also doesn't stop growing after a flush of flowers like many vines, it keeps greening and greening whatever it is growing on, all summer long. And unlike the Wisteria, it doesn't run over to the neighbors and swallow their house too. I like my Wisteria macrostachya, but the Aristolochia is better behaved and less work. Aristolochia last year....See MoreWhy is it advised so often to remove established plants for curb app
Comments (71)Most foundation planting beds are far too shallow. A neighbor who is a great gardener and whose aunt was a local landscape architect, once told me that the foundation bed should be half the height from the ground to the top gutter of the house. That seemed impossibly wide to me, but every 2 years, I have extended my front beds and she was absolutely right. It makes such a difference. For me, seeing things from the INSIDE of the house is important, too. I have some huge hosta in my front beds (the deer don't seem to like the big-leaved hostas the way they do the finer ones), but between them and the house, there is ground cover and hardy ferns. One used to see the ferns behind the hosta - no longer as the hosta are so large - but from my LR windows, I look out to a little "secret garden" of ferns nearer the windows. I love it! I put in lower windows in my LR and my library on the front of my house just to bring the outside inside - same with a huge low window in my breakfast room and the french doors in the DR - the better to see my garden and bring it into the house. It breaks my heart that I can no longer work in my garden due to age and various infirmities, but I still take a keep interest and have trained my totally untrained yard man to do many things, something he is SO proud of now and he feels an ownership of what we have created after my husband died. He and I adored working in the garden together. We never had children together - he was a 37 yr old bachelor when we married and I had two children from a previous marriage - so the garden was OUR baby. I just wish he could see the improvements I've continued to make in the nearly 12 years he's been gone. I think he would approve....See MoreAdvice for training/taming Japanese Wisteria on a Pergola
Comments (5)A & B are new growth - but not at what I call the whippy stage :-) Since I have both a Chinese and a Japanese wisteria and the Chinese one will produce flowers in summer on growth that looks like that, I'm leery of cutting it back at that stage - even though my Japanese wisteria has never produced the secondary summer flowers that the Chinese one does :-) Leave those A&B for a few days and they will likely look more like this:That is the 'whippy' look - and they are in desperate need of cutting back in that picture! Re the flowerbud - the picture is a bit fuzzy so I can't tell for sure - but I suspect it may be just a fat foliage bud. Because the foliage on the Japanese wisteria emerges early, I remember how disappointing it was in the first year or two when fat buds turned out to be foliage, not flowers :-( My Japanese one started blooming at 5 years old - and there was no mistaking the flowerbuds! Here are a couple of views of the flowerbuds: early in spring (old picture from first year of bloom - frost in the forecast, hence the protective cover!): May 6 2017:...See Moremary_rockland
5 years agoRevolutionary Gardens
5 years agomary_rockland
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoYardvaark
5 years agomary_rockland
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agolittlebug zone 5 Missouri
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agowoodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
5 years agomary_rockland thanked woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canadamary_rockland
5 years agomary_rockland
5 years agowoodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agomary_rockland thanked woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canadamary_rockland
5 years ago
Related Stories
SPRING GARDENINGSpring Planting: Wonderful Wisteria
Classic Vines Add Fragrance, Color and Romance to Garden Designs
Full StoryLANDSCAPE DESIGNHow to Create Privacy in Your Yard With Plants and Structures
Whether you have neighbors above, live on a busy street or want to reduce noise, explore these screening solutions
Full StoryGARDENING AND LANDSCAPINGReinvent It: Salvaged Pieces Frame a Parisian-Style Pergola
Gaslamp posts from the 1930s and upcycled fencing make for a patio structure befitting a historic potting shed in Philadelphia
Full StoryGARDENING GUIDESGreat Design Plant: Millettia Reticulata
Large purple flower clusters grace this robust climbing vine
Full StoryVINESHow Climbing Plants Can Improve Your Garden
When it comes to covering up bare fences and walls, vines are golden. But they can do more as well
Full StoryGARDENING GUIDESGreat Design Plant: Lonicera Sempervirens
Grow this long-blooming, flashy flowering vine to cover a fence or arbor and attract hordes of hummingbirds all season long
Full StoryEXTERIORSCare and Training for a Vine-Covered Home
Love the look but don’t want the ruin? Learn how to have vine-draped walls without all the cracks and crumbling
Full StorySPRING GARDENINGTop 10 Scented Plants for Your Garden
A palette of perfumed plants can transform even the smallest of gardens into a sensory delight
Full StoryBEFORE AND AFTERSPatio of the Week: Planted Terraces Remake a Sloped Yard
An unusable wide, shallow garden is now an inviting space, with two patios linked by a winding path and varied plantings
Full StoryLANDSCAPE DESIGNThe 7 Best Plant Types for Creating Privacy and How to Use Them
Follow these tips for using different kinds of plants as living privacy screens
Full Story
Revolutionary Gardens