Too dark/too serious?
Adrianne D.
3 years ago
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Too Late for Serious Wisteria Pruning?
Comments (3)Which kind of wisteria do you have? Chinese (Wisteria sinensis) or Japanese (Wisteria floribunda)? I am more familar with the Chinese one, although I added a Japanese one last year so it will be interesting to compare differences as the Japanese one grows. Both of mine are grown as 'trees' or perhaps shrub would be more accurate in th case of the Chinese one. Prune, prune, prune is the number one rule for me! I planted the Chinese one in spring 2000 to grow as a vine on the front porch; rapidly concluded that was not a good idea! Moved it to the front lawn later that summer to start training it as a tree. Prune, prune, prune... The first bloom happened in 2002 in July. It didn't do a proper spring bloom until 2006. It is vulnerable to late spring frosts killing flowerbuds - it had flowerbuds in 2005 that were killed in an early May frost. Ditto in 2007. This year I lost about half the flowerbuds to frost but still had a nice, but late, show. It was so cold this spring that it bloomed more like a Japaenese wisteria (i.e. flowers appearing after leaves have emerged) rather than a Chinese wisteria (i.e. flower appear before the leaves emerge), but it was pretty impressive anyway. The Chinese wisteria has reliably put out a summer flush of blooms every year since 2002. The more you prune it, it seems the more summer flowers you get. I gather the Japanese ones are less inclined to do the summer flush (perhaps because they start blooming later in the spring...?) so it will be interesting to see how they compare. No matter which one you have, I wouldn't hesitate to prune the heck out of it. I don't do the bare wood pruning that is usually recommended because I'm too afraid of pruning off flowerbuds by accident. (I can now reliably recognize the flowerbuds on bare wood for the Chinese one but I'm not sure yet what they look like for the Japanese one - and I'm sure it'll be a few more years before I find out!) But, once new growth starts, I cut all those long whippy growths back to 4-6" unless they are growing somewhere whrere I want the plant to fill out more. I bought the telescoping long-arm pruner from Lee Valley (essentially secateurs on a stick!) and that works great to reach the top bits! Our 'shrub/tree' is now about 10' tall and additional help was definitely needed. The pruners do the trick nicely. If you want to do a radical prune to reduce the size by cutting old wood, you will likely need a pruning saw - but once you've got it cut down to the size you want, the long-arm pruners will easily take care of the new growth. Some pictures: Spring bloom May 2006 Spring bloom fading June 1 2006 Summer flush July 2007 (The summer flush is a much smaller flush than the spring ones but still very nice IMO) Spring bloom this year - you can see how much later it was since it didn't really get started until June 1 and, by that time, the leaves had emerged. Future Japanese wisteria tree, August 2007 - all the bottom growth has now been removed (Japanese wisteria have longer flower racemes to display better when the blooms hang down from higher up.) Here is a link that might be useful: long-arm pruner...See MoreToo dark, too wet, or too cold?
Comments (3)It's hard to tell from your pictures, but if you're sure you're not over-watering, it looks as though there might be a high level of solubles in play. Also, no plant likes to be root bound. The unwanted effects of tight roots include shorter internodes & loss of branch extension, smaller leaves, lower vitality, shedding of older foliage so that most growth is concentrated near meristematic regions (near branch tips), and often the inability to water properly. I would do a complete repot, which includes bare-rooting, root-pruning, and a change of soil. Repotting and root pruning has a SIGNIFICANT rejuvenating effect on plants. Plants repotted can be counted on to exhibit greater biomass by the end of the growth cycle than their counterparts that may not have been so fortunate as to be as well cared for. If you're interested in how to take care of trees in containers, I would suggest you read and become familiar with the information in the thread I'll link you too. I've have been growing trees in containers for more than 25 years, and teaching gardeners in my own and surrounding communities, how to improve their skillset relative to container culture. I currently have somewhere between 250-300 old woody plants, covering many dozen species, in containers - all perfectly healthy. Al...See MoreToo much rain or something more serious?
Comments (3)If they have the nems and are in the ground, I have no advice. If they have nems and are in a container, you can try a 30 minute bleach soak with 10-20 % bleach (mix 1 part bleach or 2 parts bleach to 10 parts water), then pot them up in new soil, new pot. I did that early last year to three hosta which came from the same nursery, and all were set back to small sizes, but this spring have shown growth clean of the nems. But the real booger for us southern gardeners, which strikes quickly and fatally, is the southern blight, southern rot, anything you wish to call it. From looking beautiful one day to being a limp mass of rotted stems with the little orange balls around the base of the plant....like tiny Osmocote fertilizer pellets........only takes maybe 24 hours, and its a goner. Time to trash the plant. I had it happen this last week to Totally Twisted. I have watched for this everywhere, since it seems to be triggered by extreme sweltering heat with no breezes to circulate the air. Then the rain and high humidity. I began moving my potted hosta apart, giving more air space between them. Poor little Totally Twisted had been stuck between three larger pots, and I feel the air stagnated and it was ideal for the blight. I found my mama plantaginea with the little balls growing around her base, and I moved her to the hot direct sunlight. Some mention was made of heating the soil to 117 degrees to kill the mycellia, which was present in her soil. But I want to save HER, and I'll toss the soil. Perhaps washing the roots and the bleach soak could help with blight as well as nematodes. Blight affects vegetable garden plants such as peppers and tomatos, so it is not specific to hosta. It is spread on your shoes (like Mad Cow disease in that respect), on your tools, on garden waste not removed. Dig out the dirt in that hole in the ground, pour boiling water over the hole (do not know how much it takes to do any good), get RID of the old soil. Watch about your shoes! (I love my 4 identical pair of garden clogs cause they wash in the machine so easily.) Too much rain is serious if there is not enough drainage. We have rain all day today, more predicted tomorrow. I will be cruising through the hosta pots myself, keeping an eye on pots with the first signs of the blight. All afflicted hosta must be isolated quickly (containers make it easy to do this) and kept from contaminating the others, while you try to work some magic to save your favorites. The temps are down now to 75 in Mobile, so we don't have a high temp to deal with. Just a lot of rain. Hope you can keep the blight under control up in Georgia....See MoreHow dark is too dark? Powder
Comments (26)Annie, love your powder room! Great color, my master bedroom is painted coral and I love it. I adore your over the top elements, work perfectly in your room! Linelle, that's funny that you should say that about the green. We have 3 bathrooms in our home, the other two are painted Tiffany blue and cocoa. I will bypass both of those bathrooms and head to the powder room if I am feeling queasy. I find the green much more calming then either of the other bathrooms. My daughter on the other hand, much prefers the blue bathroom....See More
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