August's Wisteria sinensis #1

[August]

We got about 10 Wisteria in at my garden center this Summer and they sold terribly; still had 6 or 7 of them by the time we started culling. I passed on them for a week or so because they were all tiny sticks; whenever I see Wisteria as bonsai, people are usually working with big trunks. I was messing around the other day, though, and noticed what looked like extra width right beneath the soil line. I resigned to take it home and check out what was going on down there.

Pretty interesting! Maybe worth a shot!

The whole thing is probably 5 feet tall, it had contorted itself around a bamboo post. As of right now I cant even get the bottom piece off, its so tight in the pot. I was going to chop it for easy storage but I saw the start of what could be a really cool experiment with wisteria cuttings and fusion growing:

Would it be better to take it as a "mass cutting" and try to root them all, or fuse the sections together over a couple seasons and then air layer? Im kind of leaning towards the latter

 

[rockm]

We got about 10 Wisteria in at my garden center this Summer and they sold terribly; still had 6 or 7 of them by the time we started culling. I passed on them for a week or so because they were all tiny sticks; whenever I see Wisteria as bonsai, people are usually working with big trunks. I was messing around the other day, though, and noticed what looked like extra width right beneath the soil line. I resigned to take it home and check out what was going on down there.View attachment 516948View attachment 516949

Pretty interesting! Maybe worth a shot!

The whole thing is probably 5 feet tall, it had contorted itself around a bamboo post. As of right now I cant even get the bottom piece off, its so tight in the pot. I was going to chop it for easy storage but I saw the start of what could be a really cool experiment with wisteria cuttings and fusion growing:View attachment 516950View attachment 516951

Would it be better to take it as a "mass cutting" and try to root them all, or fuse the sections together over a couple seasons and then air layer? Im kind of leaning towards the latter

People use big trunks for wisteria because it is mostly a physical requirement for them as bonsai to support extremely large leaves and flowers.

Spindly trunks can't physically support growth. Small trunks fall over and tend to look kind of strange when growth and flowering comes in (if flowers happen, as trunks have to be more than 10 years old (from seed) to flower).

Fusing can happen. It's not all that common, as wisteria enjoys making rampant tangled growth of individual vines that don't really fuse together much. It will likely take scarring and wounding on individual trunks to really work. To fuse a trunk like this one will likely require planting it out and letting it grow wild for a few years or more.

If this plant is sold as landscaping material it may be hardy in your area, might not be. It is extremely common in the Middle Atlantic states and down into the south. It has become extremely invasive here and in other Middle Atlantic states, so we have many wild and old wisteria to use. I kind of laugh when I see it for sale at nurseries. It's easily collected from the woods here.

 

[August]

Thanks for the info! Don't worry... it's hardy here. Sort of a rarity to find out this way, actually. Many of our common nursery plants are extremely invasive in other states, gives you a hint about the climate.

I don't have extremely high hopes, but it was free, would have been thrown away, and presents an opportunity for learning.