wisteria

[doctorjef]

When I was a kid, my grandmother in Texas had a very large and old wisteria growing in the centre of a large, permanent metal frame -- this created the basis for a rounded growth form and prevented invasiveness. I suspect this was an old method of dealing with wisteria in a civilised manner. You do need sufficient space to rig up such an arrangement -- say the amount of space that would be required for a full size crepe myrtle to thrive.

As to Carolina Jasimine, I had the misfortune of getting to know that stuff in Austin, TX where I used to live. I bought a house where it had already been planted at the end of the driveway. The stuff quickly gets utterly out of control and puts out a zillion suckers. You have to trim it constantly. You want yellow blooms in the Spring? I suggest sticking with some nice safe forsythia!

[al_roethlisberger]

I also had some beautiful orange honey-suckle, as well as jasmine back in CA, and both would quickly get "out of control" unless managed.... especially the honey-suckle. It even broke my fence a couple times as it wended through the gaps! But they were beautiful, and I did manage them while I lived there. I can't say what the next owner did, but that's honestly not really my responsibility

As far as unintended consequences down the line, I'll just mention again that wisteria has been cultivated here for a long time... at least 100 years, so I'm not sure how much incremental harm is to be had by someone planting some in their yard. At this point the plant is pretty well established on its own.

I think the argument using long-term maintenance/responsibility could be made for many things in life, such as a septic system, but that doesn't mean it is irresponsible for someone to install it and make an honest effort to manage it while it is still their responsibility.

If we all chose to "do nothing" just because future generations might not do the right thing, we'd never get anything accomplished I'm not suggesting that I didn't have any responsibility to manage the plant when I planted it, but I am saying that the new owner accepted that responsibility when the property was sold to them.

I really don't think wisteria is the bane it is being made out to be. I've lived with it all my life across this country, and I've only seen a handful of examples where it is "out of control" and even then it was limited to primarily one tree. I've seen far more examples of it being a beautiful specimen.

We've got one growing all over a tree about 50 feet behind our house, and I've got far worse problems with wild onion sprouting up


Al

[JQ Public]

Why not grow a nice native like the crossvine?

[HappyNCGirl]

I'm looking for ideas other than Carolina Jessamine (already have that in several places in the yard and love it) and American Wisteria (already have that too), for an arbor.

Has anyone used chocolate vine? How about kiwi vine? I'll research crossvine that someone mentioned.

In a gardening magazine, a homeowner/landscape architect, used 5-leaf akebia aka "chocolate vine" on his arbor. After researching it, I got the impression it can be invasive like chinese wisteria, although not as deadly to the host plant. Chinese Wisteria eventually kills what it is growing on. I have a great wooded area behind my home and don't want to add anything to my yard that has seeds the birds can spread and vines sprout up all over the trees back there. There is already naturally occurring carolina jessamine and trumpet vine growing on some trees in the woods. Very lovely. The chocolate vine is intriguing because the foliage is really attractive. I'm hoping someone has had some experience with it.

[MrsRhythm]

Originally Posted by HappyNCGirl

Plant the American variety, Wisteria frutescens. I bought mine last year at Lowes, its the Amethyst Falls cultivar. The American variety doesn't have the fragrance and isn't quite as showy as the asian varieties, but it also isn't nearly as agressive as it's asian cousins.

It blooms later too. Mine has buds but no blooms yet.

Check out this webpage for more info: Look Good, Smell Better, Act Bad (Chinese Wisteria, Wisteria sinensis)

Thank you for this info! I'm glad to know that the wisteria in my backyard is this variety - we kept wondering what was wrong with it since it is developing much slower than the wisteria blooming elsewhere now and it has no smell. I wondered why we'd have an invasive species because the previous owner of our house was someone into native plants and green living.

I like the look and smell of the other wisteria. As with everything, responsibility and moderation are probably key.

[PDXmom]

My grandmother had a beautiful wisteria in her yard in Eastern NC. When I bought my first home in Portland, the yard still had the old clothesline metal Ts. These things were concreted in and difficult to remove. So my Mom brought out a couple of wisteria plants from Granny's original vine and I trained them to cover the old metal structures. I planted them in big wooden wine barrel halves at the base of the metal structures. They were beautiful. I've seen others train them on chain link fences. Great way to turn a not so beautiful fence into a natural work of art. They do take some time to maintain... but so does grass and it's not nearly as pretty.

[bellasformas]

If wisteria kills privet...someone please bring me some!! I've spent the past two days "trimming" the privet!