WisteriaQ. Why doesn't my wisteria bloom?
A. Youth could be the problem since seedling plants require several years to flower and sometimes fail to flower at all. Grafted plants, the kind purchased at nurseries and garden centers, should not have this problem.
Reluctance of wisteria to bloom abundantly is usually due to a lack of one or more of the following cultural requirements: full sun, good drainage, and light fertilization in the fall, not spring. Another essential is annual pruning, which can be done by
shortening new shoots to five buds in summer. If a grafted or cutting-grown Chinese wisteria refuses to flower in three or four years after planting, or a Japanese wisteria is barren after about seven years, prune it heavily and fertilize with superphosphate. If this fails to produce blooms root-prune by driving a spade into the soil 24 inches from the trunk around the plant.
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