Wisteria or Wysteria - How to control Wisteria - Beautiful but destructive creeping vine

Wisteria, a beautiful, rampant, home wrecker. Spring is the time of year for us all to breathe in the light refreshing scent of Wisteria. The single season of this plant’s positive impact on the landscape should be noted, and the fast-growing vine given its due. There are few plants with the visual and olfactory presence of a Wisteria in full bloom, and for the two weeks that it does flower, one’s hat should be off and a smile should be well-displayed upon one’s face.

Ah, but pity the unsuspecting homeowner who dares yield to the temptation of planting the creeping demon. This vigorous, athletic, dynamic and strenuous grower has been known to rip the shingles off of the roof, tear apart the soffits and undermine the siding of more than one innocent domicile. It will send underground runners for dozens of yards into previously virgin unsullied garden, to pop up with innocent-looking dainty tendrils. It will climb up trees, strangling vascular systems, adding weight in a storm and overtopping them for sunlight. It will grow at night when the gardener sleeps, or it will pose as a well-behaved grammar school student for weeks of the growing season, to transform into a raging despot as soon as the mail piles up during the gardener’s vacation. Do you detect a bit of animus on my part towards this plant? Is there a ‘history,’ a ‘back-story’ that explains this diatribe? Indeed, I have struggled with this plant in more than one location and in almost every summer of my gardening career.

Hold on, now wait, let’s forgive if not forget for a moment, and stop to take in its outstanding May raiment. The lightly fragrant purple to blue-violet flowers hanging in draped racemes along the arbor, fence or gate are almost a symbol of May’s bounteous beauty. The heavy coils of flowers attract honey bees and other pollinators on sunny days.

Wisteria can be purchased in a pot from garden centers, or you can dig up (with permission of course) a rooted cutting from your neighbor who would love to have you remove some from his or her garden. My advice is to build yourself a sturdy trellis just for this plant, and put it far enough away from the house to avoid the problems mentioned above, but also where you can see it from the kitchen window, to encourage anyone who loves the plant to do the dishes more often. Near a sitting area would be nice, as the shade from a Wisteria is deep enough to snooze under on a midsummer afternoon, yet dappled enough to enjoy some warmth in September.

You can train your plant into a tree form which will help keep it in control somewhat. I like the trunk of the tree form, as it holds up a seemingly impossible mass of foliage and flowers, resembling something Dr. Seuss would illustrate in a book. Plant in full sun for best flowering, in any good well-drained garden soil. Sometimes Wisteria will quit flowering unexpectedly. This could be the result of improper pruning, and sometimes it is just contrariness on the part of the plant. ‘Shocking’ the thing is recommended. Take a spade or sharp shovel and root prune the vine, inscribing a circle about a foot away from the trunk, and severing the roots in a dotted pattern around the circumference. In other words, do not dig a trench but an interrupted trench, and only do this once every three years or so. THAT will remind it that you are willing to battle its propensity for proliferation, but you will damn well get some flowering out of it or there will be consequences.

Wisteria is a member of the Pea family, Fabaceae, but it should be noted that its fruit is poisonous. There are about ten species, including W.sinensis and W. floribunda, the Chinese and Japanese Wisteria respectively. The genus is named for Caspar Wistar (1761-1818), an American professor of anatomy.

We're working on a scratch-and-sniff feature for these videos, so that you can experience the aroma emanating from this plant. Light but intoxicating, there is no finer flowering vine, if it weren’t for its obnoxious nature. Kind of like having a beautiful teenager in the house, but Wisteria never grows out of it AND never ever leaves home.

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