Wednesday, 20 February 2019
With a beautiful day instead of the predicted rain, we tackled the wisteria project. Other jobs got done, as well, as you’ll see in tomorrow’s post.
Pruning the Shelburne Hotel wisteria (unpruned for twelve years) had been hanging over my head for a year. Last year, we didn’t have time during the proper pruning months (winter and early summer). Allan would have to do all the ladder work, so I’m not sure why it weighed so heavily on my mind. Perhaps I feared another year would pass without us getting it done.
Most of the photos are Allan’s.
Before:
Our friends Ed and Jackson Strange stopped by to chat.
At the end of the day, we had a trailer load of debris which we took home and parked overnight. The wisteria still had uppy growth that would have to wait till the next day because we were out of daylight.
After (before the clean up underneath):
Thursday, 21 February 2019
After a trip to the dump, we did a few other trimming jobs because of my theory that the rest of the wisteria would not make a full dump load. That was correct, but my plan threw the timing off so that Allan had to make the second dump run before the wisteria was quite done. We are still left with a partial load of whippy, twisty growth….without enough for another dump run, so it will have to be slowly disposed of at home (wheelie bin and shredder).
I find getting rid of debris to be the second most irksome part of gardening. (The first is finger blight aka vandalism.) I liked the attitude of an Astoria gardener who used to have the policy that she would pile debris but not haul it away.
However, that does not work in public and resort gardens.
Anyway! Today Allan and I refined the wisteria pruning so that we are both well chuffed about it. When it leafs out, Allan will go up the ladder again and pull out any dead stems.
Almost after:
My mental guide had been this RHS article, especially the part about hard pruning of a severely overgrown wisteria. The vine had not flowered well last year, and what flowers it had were mostly buried in the tangle of branches. Allan hadn’t read the article so was relying on my advice and on instinct. I am worried we pruned it too hard for much bloom this year. It had to be done… The messy piled up tangle was not at all attractive.
I wish we had a before photo looking up; no sky showed at all.
During:
After:
After all that work, we are short on “after” photos.
After leafing out, we hope to refine it some more, and after the hoped for flowering, even more, and from then on, it should be an easy job twice a year.
Here’s our third batch of debris, an unfortunate result of my underestimating how long day two of the wisteria pruning would take.
Some of it would be good basket makings for a weaver of natural baskets. I thought of that all the way through the job…. It can be harder to give material away than to just quickly dispose of it, and with rain and maybe snow on the way, speed was of the essence.
Friday, 22 February 2019
Due to the lack of after photos, Allan decided to go out today (a cold and rainy day off) and acquire some.
Nothing like the satisfaction of a large pruning job well done. It seems to order the garden.
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I agree with stevestongarden: that must have been very satisfying!
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So very much so.
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Great job and I can’t wait to see the Shelburne in bloom!
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It looks so much better! I definitely don’t think you pruned too hard. You could have gotten away with more! Well done 🙂
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Nice work! That must have felt wonderful accomplishing the wisteria project. Ed and Jackson Strange! Jackson is my favorite dog on your blog.
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The pruned wisteria looks terrific, and I VERY much appreciate the link you provided about pruning wisteria. While my wisteria is not overgrown yet, at some point, I’ll need to prune it and all info. in this regard is appreciated.
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Wisteria are so much work, and when pruned ‘properly’ after missing a season is so harsh. I sort of want to prune them like some of the flowering trees; ‘after’ bloom. That is not very good for them though. Trying to prune them while not removing the flowering buds takes some serious diligence. For the most overgrown, I just cut them back completely, and do without bloom for a year. For yours, if I needed to cut so much growth and bloom off, I would have taken the opportunity to thin it to just a few canes, like a grapevine. There would be no bloom this year of course.
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I agree, that is what I would have done if it had been mine. Since it is in a public garden, I am hoping we might get a few flowers this year with the amount we left. Maybe. Maybe not? My plan is then to remove a few of the big overhead canes per year. I hope that is good. There is a long stretch to one side that is not shown much in the photos that I think will bloom this year for sure. I hope.
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That is actually the preferred way to do it if you have the patience. I do not. Besides, in the landscapes where I am working now, I will not likely be back to continue where I left off next year. This was intended to be only temporary work. (Of course, that was a years ago.) I doubt that whomever prunes what I am working on now will be as educated or as experienced in horticulture as I am.
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