Chinese Wisteria

Howzit All,
Just wanted to share with you all my new Chinese Wisteria I got on ebay a few days ago. (http://stores.ebay.com/The-Bonsai-Garden) To me this is one of the best websites on the internet that carry great Shohin/Mame trees.

-Tim

Well, if there ever was a plant that is NOT suited for shohin (and especially mame) it is the wisteria. Much as I love them in flower, at other times of the year they make very poor bonsai. But they flowers are much too large to suite a smaller tree.

I think you'll have to bury that tangle of roots, and lean the tree to the left to make a pleasing base.

JimLewis wrote:Well, if there ever was a plant that is NOT suited for shohin (and especially mame) it is the wisteria. Much as I love them in flower, at other times of the year they make very poor bonsai. But they flowers are much too large to suite a smaller tree.

I think you'll have to bury that tangle of roots, and lean the tree to the left to make a pleasing base.

Howzit Jim,

I wasn't planning to turn this into a Shohin/Mame. I was just saying that the website "Has" good Shohin/Mame trees to choose from. I am going to put this in the ground and grow it out a bit.

-Tim

Hi Tim... I wish you great success with your wisteria as bonsai. If putting it in the ground, beware. Wisteria are arguably more invasive than bamboo. They grow shallow & deep roots as well as runners above ground to reproduce themselves elsewhere. Cutting the top of the plant sends a signal to throw roots faster & further. My neighbor cut her landscape wisteria to the ground & soon my backyard was filled with runners dozens of feet in length. I fight to chase them back but over time, have lost more ground than I've gained. I've considered wrapping the runners around viewing stones; over time, the wisteria vine might create a decent seating.

My wisteria in a nursery pot that blooms nicely. I set a pan for holding water under it which was partially hidden by a deep oval bonsai pot this early spring...

Mahalo Chris for the information.

Now I have second thoughts about putting it in the ground. You have a very nice wisteria. May I ask... how old is it and have you always grown it in a garden pot? Also, setting a pan under to hold water dose it help with the humidity?

-Tim

Wisteria are arguably more invasive than bamboo

When we bought the place we have now, there was a giant wisteria growing on an arbor over the front walkway. Beautiful in bloom, high-maintenance and destructive the rest of the year. I chopped it, sprayed it with Roundup, then dug up the "dead" root and threw it away.

5 years later, that arbor is again twined with wisteria vine, and it is pushing up beside the house foundation 40 feet away. I've yanked up 20 feet of root on many occasions, and keep on spraying the sprouts as they appear.

So keep in in a pot, and keep the pot off the ground.

Bamboo is bad; Wisteria is closer to Kudzu!

Mine this year:

Hi Tim... Jim is understating the destructiveness of wisteria, but it is hard to perceive from your innocuous looking plant. Herbaceous terror lurks. What grows savagely in Virginia or North Carolina might swallow blocks in Hawaii in the length of a few yawns.

I've had the nursery-can potted plant since the mid-1990s, but it didn't bloom for years. Once it became thoroughly pot-bound, blooms began and continue. I feed it a little bloom-enhancing fertilizer once or twice in the fall but otherwise it receives the same attention as other plants. Hold-back any nitrogen fertilizer until after blooming as nitrogen promotes leafy tendrils rather than compact blooming. It loves to drink, so I keep a pan of water under it all summer plus much of spring & some of autumn. I have to fight back moss (seen in the photo) to protect the bark & apply full-strength vinegar by dabbing moss on the trunk to assist--it is overdue a dabbing.

As a flower platform, wisteria does not require obsessive crafting of limbs to mimic aged-tree form. For taper, you'll want to restrict wheel branching that can create reverse taper. The same rhythm & balance applies to its trunk & branch form as in more tree-like bonsai. Trimming the ever-reaching, vigorously-lengthening tendrils concerns the same issues as chasing back as traditional bonsai foliage. You'll consider apical bud direction, revealing the trunk, expressing depth with retreating foliage (back branching), harmony of the whole et al.

FWIW, the posted photo is taken from the back of the planting. Frontal photos were a little fuzzy & would need tinkering. I turned it to appreciate both front & back during a week of blooming.

Hope that helps.

Mahalo Chris and Jim for the information,

Jim... I googled Kudzu and it scared the hell out of me!! In Hawaii we have a plant that is similar to it that came from Tahiti that is taking over parts of the rain forest. A lot of plants that are here are not indigenous to the islands so we have to be carful to what we grow here.
BTW, I seen your other post of your wisteria and it's looking good!!

Chris... Mahalo for the information on your wisteria. When you say "wheel branching" do you mean branches that grows around the trunk? Also, Mahalo for the information about the use of nitrogen. Since the last post it had already grown four inches.

-Tim

Hi Tim... Yes, "wheel branching" means branches growing at the same height (sharing a single circumference) around the trunk as though spokes of a wheel. They will create an unsightly knob that detracts from continual trunk tapering. Since you want it to enlarge I would encourage foliage growth at present, assuming it doesn't wrap around things which you don't want grasped. It is a VIGOROUS vine & will bud back when you are ready to chase the tendrils to more reasonable length.