Has anyone grown wisteria?

I love (really love) the look of wisteria, but have read it is difficult to grow... Has anyone successfully grown it here in Maplewood? If so, any tips? How long before an archway of wisteria can be achieved??

I've killed it a couple of times, then gave up.  Good luck!

This is a question for Jersey_boy!  Not sure he is reading MOL these days, but he finally got his Wisteria to bloom last year.

My Wisteria is GLORIOUS. It grows an easy 10 feet or more a year and flowers twice. Once right now, it's in full bloom and it will get a few blooms in the summer. It came with the house but it's impossible to kill..not that I would. We did split it at the root and gave it to our neighbors and theirs is thriving too!
I have no secret except we cut it back pretty hard whenever we want and it comes back strong as ever, year after year.

If you don't keep after your wisteria, your yard will turn into Jumanji.

Here's what happens when Wisteria gets out of control 

I used to have it climbing on my garage until it started pulling pieces of the garage off and eating them.  I chopped it down and redirected it onto a tree I didn't like.  So now I like the wisteria, and it looks great.  It takes four or five years before it starts blooming, and it really does strong-arm anything in its way.  It blooms the same time the lilacs do, with the same color, and the lilacs don't destroy other things.  That might be a better bet.

It's a menace. It's growing out of my boxwood hedges. It has taken root all over the yard. I pull it out and it comes back lusher than ever. I hate wisteria. 

The arch I'd like to grow is a squash arch. Check this out:

http://getbusygardening.com/building-squash-arch/

I love it and just two years adopted three roots from a garden in Maplewood.  It is blooming this summer after just two years in the ground in The Secret Garden @ 377.

It is planted to grow up and onto a chain link fence along one edge of the garden.

Best Regards,

Ron Carter

Covering a chain-link fence is the perfect application for wisteria! I love the look of it but have always been afraid to plant any. First, it does take FOREVER to get established and bloom, but once it does, look out. It will take over and destroy anything in its path. I'm with FC_: Plant lilacs.

Twist the flexible branches around each other to develop that gnarly look. And at least once a year cut off all the green branches. Like roses, cutting it way back encourages flowers, plus it prevents it from breaking into your house and strangling you while you sleep.

It will spread via runners, so keep an eye on the beds around it. More than once I caught it after it had stretched the whole width of the house under the porch!

I went to a nursery to buy some once and the man refused to sell it to me.  He said that everyone thinks it is beautiful until it grows into their home and they have to spend a lot of money having their house fixed.  I tried to explain that I wanted to put it on a freestanding pergola ten feet away from my home, but he still refused.

There was a house in Summit that looked similar to the one that waxwings posted, minus the tin roof.  The did have to have MAJOR repairs done, though planting the wisteria and training it onto the front porch was not a good idea and likely the cause of that.

Guys, How about the house on Wyoming somewhere between Wyoming Pres and the light at Glen Ave.

It is still standing!  And every year a great show!

Best Regards,

Ron Carter

I guess it's gone now but for at least 30 years there was a gorgeous Wisteria vine growing along the back porch, facing the tennis courts at the Civic House. Of course in those days, the Parks Department had 10 guys working in the gardens alone....now ?

Check out the massive wisteria at this house in Montclair. Scroll down to where the color pictures start, then it's about six pictures later. It's also shown in the very last picture. You would think it would break the columns.

http://bigoldhouses.blogspot.com/2015/05/our-reticent-upper-class.html

kthnry, that is the scariest-looking wisteria I've seen yet.  Here's the one I trained onto an ugly swamp maple in my back yard.  I'm hoping they'll strangle each other, but it does look pretty good this week.

ETA you'll have to turn your head sideways!

hmm.. thanks for all the feedback... Not sure I am capable enough of a gardener to keep the wisteria growing and in the right places... will give this more thought. Thx!