Japenese Wisteria

Randy, did I read that correctly? 18 inches in diameter at the base? You say it's now 3.5 feet tall but if so, the base looks to be more like 8 inches based on the proportions of the photo. I'm not trying to nit-pick, just curious. BTW, that thing has some really large leaflets!

Regarding frost - I've never (yet) grown one in a pot, but when we lived in Virginia we had one trained on our garage (the new owners are probably still cursing us for that!). It was growing on the south side and the early spring sun always warmed it and forced the flower buds to swell early. As a result, we lost the blooms to frosts every year except one. Haven't had that problem with landscape specimens up here in the frozen wasteland of western NY, but I can see it being a concern with potted wisterias.

Chris

Hey Randy sorry for not getting back to you sooner... If your climates similar to mine & you havent dug her yet I say go for it... Make sure u over pot when you get it home or even better stick it back in the ground for the rest of the season.

I am curious to hear others experience regarding rot in larger collected wisteria... I have seen more than a few stunning old trees succumb out here over the course of a few seasons & its a fate i dont want to befall my own old girl. A glimpse at the midsection of trunk, I hope to get some decent pics of this tree when I haul it out of the plastic sandpit it in & put in a pot built from recycled Iron Bark timber. Heres hoping the weight of the pot & soil & tree & concrete support stand will prevent it leaving my front garden without a great deal of noise & pain (need a snarlling dog smiley for the pain)

Chris,

yeah, it's not that large at the base anymore as it did just what Matt, is trying to avoid, rot. It used to have another trunk on it that rotted out that I finally removed this spring it's now 13".

Matt,

Nice tree bud, and yes, those big ones are a Pain but luckly they don't get moved very often. I have found that if you avoid getting the trunk wet it will minimize the rotting. It's just impossible to fix as the inner core of the trunk is so fibrous and in a humid climate like mine it just rots out over time.

Randy

Hmm...

The one I cut back and plan on digging has a rotten core too. Guess it just comes with the territory. I'll get a couple of pictures the next time I go buy fresh shrimp.

I'm going to wait to dig it, both from a "better safe than sorry" place and considering that it's hot as hell now and we haven't had a decent rain in a couple of months.

Has anyone tried wood hardener to stop the deterioration?

R