Mike, I think it's possible that cane borers have been the problem. I cut the two affected canes down to just below where the problem areas were. The inside of the cane had this grey gooky stuff in it, not sure what it was but it sure did not look healthy. Anyway, all the affected parts were removed and I'll keep a close eye on the rest of the plant. Thanks for your help, Shelley

Hi,im hoping that someone will see my desperate message.... I too have a wisteria which i have had for 7 years,it's lives in a sunny position within the gardena and gets plenty of water but it has never bloomed. Then this year i noticed that it was producing something different, it could only be buds.....A couple of weeks later i noticed that the leaves and buds were not maturing eek!!!! I have contacted the local garden centres but they are clueless. On an overall inspection of my wisteria, i noticed that some of the branches are very brittle and snap easily, also the buds turn to powder when touched. I have scrapped back the bark around the lower trunk , but i really cant tell if it's dead OMG!!!!! the thing is its quite large now on scale and i really do not want to dig it up if possible. i would be gratefull for any advice, thanks mrs latham

In the near future, it would be best to remove the main pot from the cache pot when you water; then, after the soil is fairly close to dry but not wilted, water thoroughly so the entire soil mass is soaked and 15-25% of the pot's volume has exited the drain hole. It looks like there are holes through the plant's pot bottom at the sidewalls (that's good); so, after watering, tip the pot at a 45* angle with a drain hole down (lowest point of the pot). You can prop it in the sink until it stops draining. This will 'force' quite a bit of any excess water from the pot, water that 'wants' to remain in the soil. You can see by the images below how much difference this can make insofar as water retention is concerned by comparing tipped B to upright A. The shaded area represents the fraction of the soil that is 100% saturated (not good). How much excess (perched) water any given soil will hold depends on several factors, but is primarily driven by the size of the particles from which the soil is made. I think it would be better to get the plant straightened out before you repot, but after the plant has recovered, a plan to repot into a soil that allows you to water appropriately without having to use work-arounds or worry about soggy soil ruining root function/health would be very helpful. Focusing on root health by managing the plant's water needs is a critical part of root health, but rather easy if you make it your focus. I'll leave you something about using a "tell", which you can use to "tell" you when it's appropriate to water. That, along with making sure you're supplementing nutritional needs, providing adequate light/temperature levels, should get your plant turned around. This might be helpful, too. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support good root health, which is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to a build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al

Hey Vanessa! Dumb canes require a steady amount of moisture and don't like to get dry, but they also don't like to be soggy....just moist. They also get shocked by too much sun. I am not sure what your lighting and watering situation is, but those could be it. My dumb cane did the same thing and I wasn't giving it enough water. Obviously, there are other reasons it could be doing it, but those are the best two things to try first.