How to grow wisteria and best varieties

Wisterias are happy in most gardens, and are easy to grow as climbers or even as free-standing shrubs. The beautiful flowers are scented and come in a range of colours.

Which? Gardening magazine  sniffed the scented blooms of 15 varieties, plus looked at how well they grow, to find you the best one for your garden.

Getting the right one is important or you could have no flowers for years or a monster plant that smothers everything else.

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Key facts

• Plant type - Deciduous climber
• Position - Sheltered, preferably south or west-facing in full sun
• Soil - Any

How to grow wisteria: month by month

Growing wisteria

Buying the best plant

Buy plants in flower if possible to guarantee you have the variety you want. This also guarantees that you haven't bought a plant that will take years before it flowers for the first time. Wisteria should be grafted onto a rootstock so you get exactly the variety you want. Check the plant that isn’t suckering (sending out shoots) from the bottom. Avoid plants raised from seed as these can take years to flower.

How to grow wisteria in a pot

Pot wisteria with five parts Best Buy compost for patio pots and two parts horticultural grit. Feed with sulphate of potash after flowering, and again in August, as the plant is setting the flower buds for the following year. The wisteria will need repotting every two years into a larger pot, unless you prune the roots to keep the plant in a bonsai fashion.

Choose a pot that's widest at the neck so it's easy to remove and replace the plant.

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How to plant wisteria in the ground

Plants will dry out quickly, especially in a light or sandy soil, so keep them well watered, particularly when newly planted and during dry periods. Avoid growing them bang up against a wall where it’s very dry.

Help your plants with a recommended soil improver

Best wisteria varieties

Which members can log in now to see the full results and which are our Best Buy varieties. If you're not a member, join Which? to get instant access.

Full testing results for wisteria

How we test wisteria

The Which? Gardening magazine researchers contacted one of the National Collection holders for wisteria, based near Millom in Cumbria, to see if we could work together to rate 15 commonly available varieties of wisteria to find the best for our gardens. 

The National Collection holder monitored the plants during spring, recording when the buds first formed through to when the last flowers faded, assessing them for how many flowers were open at once and how much of display they made, as well as the strength and sweetness of the fragrance.

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Caring for wisteria

Training wisteria as a freestanding plant

The stems of wisteria can be trained around each other or given initial support until they're thick enough to stand on their own. Start with a young, single-stemmed plant and train the stem up the support. Remove the tip the following February to encourage side-shoots.

Cutting back whippy stems that grow to the side allows them to develop into woodier stems that can support further flowering stems. Shorten them to around 15cm after flowering in July or August, and repeat in late winter until the plant’s shape is established.

How to prune wisteria

Wisteria can quickly get messy, and you'll need to prune regularly. They flower from old wood, so if they have too much young, 'whippy' growth you’ll get a poor display. Prune in mid or late summer to reduce the length of young, leafy shoots produced that year, aiming to leave each with with five to seven sets of leaves – this will allow them to mature in time for autumn. 

You should then cut back the same stems in late winter so you’re left with stubby spurs with just two buds each. These should sprout and flower the following spring.

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Training climbing plants

Wisterias climb by wrapping their twining stems around whatever is nearby. They can’t attach themselves to flat, vertical surfaces such as walls and fences, so if this is where you want to grow them, you’ll need to provide something that they can grab hold of. 

Horizontal wires are the best option, as they’re flexible and discreet. Position them 30cm apart and secure using screw eyes on wooden surfaces, or vine eyes on masonry. 

Wisterias look best when their side branches are trained horizontally so flowers hang more freely. Do this in winter. Secure the main stem vertically, shorten it to 75-90cm and remove any other growth. 

As new side-shoots appear in summer, tie them in at an angle of 45 degrees against your wires. In subsequent winters, shorten these stems by a third and retie them horizontally. Do this yearly, until you have an attractive framework of branches. From then on, only prune to keep stragglers at bay.

Common wisteria growing problems

Wisteria scale

Wisteria are generally problem-free but can suffer from wisteria scale, which is more common in the London area. The adult scales are large, up to 10mm across, and dome-shaped. The colour is dark brown-black, with a powdery covering. Immature scales are smaller, flatter and paler.

Large infestations of scale can weaken plants by removing significant amounts of sap and dissolved nutrients. Wisteria scale has been implicated in dieback of branches, and could probably kill plants that were not in the best of health.

If the wisteria is in flower, it’s best to scrape the brown, shell-shaped insects from the bark. If not in flower, treat with a suitable insecticide such as Westland Resolva Bug Killer.

Frost

The flower buds of wisteria are very susceptible to the cold, so if a frost threatens in early spring it's best to cover the plants with horticultural fleece if possible. If the buds do get frosted and drop, the plant might reflower later in the year but the blooms will appear with the leaves, diminishing the impact of the display.

Discover the best frost protection

Sudden dieback

Wisterias do have an unfortunate habit of suddenly dying off – either a substantial branch or even the whole plant. It is not always possible to detect the cause, but likely culprits are:

Honey fungus - Wisteria is notably susceptible to this disease, which generally proves fatal once established. 

Phytophthora root rot - This fungal disease is most prevalent in wet conditions, so avoid it by choosing a well-drained spot for your plant.

Failure of the graft union - Even on mature plants, the connection between the rootstock and the grafted variety can sometimes break down. In this situation everything above the union dies. If any green shoots remain, they have probably grown up directly from the rootstock and are unlikely to flower for many years.

Drought or waterlogging - Either of these conditions can kill or seriously damage wisterias. Plants growing on walls are particularly susceptible to dry conditions as the wall not only keeps off a lot of the rain, but tends to absorb some of the available moisture itself. Always keep the soil moist, and mulch well in autumn to help retain water. Short-term waterlogging should not cause too much damage, though you may see some dieback, but wisteria will not tolerate sodden soil for long.

Non-flowering wisteria

Where a plant has never flowered the likely causes are:

The plant is too young, or is not a named variety: The two most common species grown in gardens are Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) and Japanese wisteria (W. floribunda) Seedlings of these species may take 20 years to mature sufficiently to start flowering. Most cultivated wisterias are named varieties grafted onto an appropriate rootstock. For example W. sinensis 'Prolific' or W. floribunda 'Multijuga', 'Rosea' and 'Yae-kokuryu' ('Black Dragon'). These varieties should all flower within a few years of planting.

If you’re buying a wisteria, always make sure it’s a grafted, named variety. If you inherit a non-flowering wisteria it could be a seedling, or it could be a grafted plant where the graft has failed, allowing the rootstock to take over. There is little you can do to encourage earlier flowering, though pruning may help a little. If you’re impatient, buy another plant while it’s in bloom.

Incorrect pruning: If wisterias are left unpruned they are not only likely to get out of hand, but will take longer to come into flower. Side-shoots should be cut back to about 30cm in August. This will encourage flower buds to develop near the base of the shoots. These shortened shoots should be cut back further, to about 5cm in winter.

Too much shade: Wisterias need a sunny position to flower well. If shade seems to be the problem, then reduce overhead cover, move the plant or train some branches out into a sunnier spot.