Dead Wisteria

Hello.  I have (had) a beautiful Wisteria that developed flower buds then stopped.  I have left it for about a month hopeing that it would pick it's self up but to no avail and today I chopped it down.  The inside of the main stems have brown speckles through them but the actual wood is still green and healthy looking.  A new plant has come up from the base but I suspect that it is from one of last years seeds.  Does anyone know what can cause this and how to prevent it in the future?

Regards,

Mary

I think perhaps you should have been more patient.  My wisteria was frozen at just the wrong moment so produced no flower buds at all this year.  I gave it a good feed of pelleted chicken manure and a pep talk.   I noticed foliage on just one stem a week or so ago and thought I'd have to cut most of it back but, lo and behold, there are leaf buds breaking on most of the rest of it now.  i shall give it another week or two to be sure all the stems are dead before I cut out any wood.

The plant pushing up from your base is probably shooting from the original rootstock.  Give it a feed of liquid rose or tomato food to help it along and some slow release pelleted chicken manure or blood fish and bone.

Oh dear.  Thanks for the reply.  Everything I had read said it was probably wet rot or such so I gotbored of waiting.  The main stem is still in place so maybe it will shoot again from that.

I've no experience of wet rot so can't help but, as a rule of thumb, I leave shrubs and woody climbing plants till mid June before undertaking drastic surgery - except roses which show dead stems quite early on and need pruning back in spring anyway.

Hear hear, patience is a virtue in apparently dead plants.  My local shop keeps 'dead' plants for me to look at, and sells them to me at ridiculous prices (they think it is ridiculous because they are selling me a dead plant, and I think it ridiculous because I have had good plants for next to nothing!).    E.g. my now large and beautiful corkscrew hazel cost me 49p., ditto several other things.  Seems like a winner either way - and teaches patience.

Talking of which, i have a  'James Stirling'  whipcord hebe, which is about 9 - 10 years old. It is a lovely shade of gold, and has become a pretty big plant.  This year, for the first time, it has covered itself with little white starry flowers!   Who would have thought!

If anyone's got knowledge of Wisteria can they please answer a question for me?  My son and his partner have just moved into a house in Bath.  It had a healthy looking Wisteria about fifteen feet high and with an extended brach about ten feet across the house.  I has a healthy looking bulging stem at the bottom, but is in a rather cramped space which consists of one removed paving stone.  It is in the SW so has had huge amounts of rain this year, but despite this a few months ago it was in full leaf and looked very healthy, however, it is now completely naked.  Any suggestions??

I would imagine that it's just normal autumnal leaf fall.  

I'm sure the plant has a healthy root system under the paving.  Many wisterias survive successfully in these circumstances.

Wisteria needs careful pruning twice a year in order to keep it under control and producing good blossom.  It sounds as if your son's wisteria has been well trained so far - this site will tell him how to keep up the good work (if he already knows my apologies for teaching grandmothers to suck eggs )

Thanks very much Dove, that's very reassuring. I'm sure he will be really pleased.  I did tell him not to be too quick to chop the plant. Come to think of it, they ar halfway down a hill and apparently lose the sun completely in the winter.  Perhaps the plant has sensed the dwindling light and dropped its leave early?  I live a few miles away and the wisteria near me are just turning colour.  I didn't add in all the clues.  Thanks again for bothering to reply.  Much appreciated.

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=242

Sorry, I should have added this link