Dead Wisteria

[H.C. Heartland]

My mothers beautiful wisteria looks as if it got caught by a recent frost! It looks dead. She is so upset but going to leave it for one more year in hopes that it will come back. Does anyone have any advice for how one might be able to revive wisteria?

 

[gata montes]

As it is very difficult to tell whether a Wisteria is actually dead - I would say that although your mother's Wisteria may look dead after being damaged by frost - the chances are that it is not - especially as they are much hardier than many people think and can survive prolonged temperatures of between -3 to -4 centigrade without too much of a problem.

Unless both the stems and the roots of the Wisteria are brittle and mushy - which would mean that it had met its demise - I would recommend not doing anything at this stage - as it will probably start shooting again in a few months time and although it may be tempting at this point to remove any debris - unless the stems are incredibly long - they are best left until mid summer - as apart from the fact that the debris will provide shelter for the new shoots - cutting or pruning them back at this point would prevent any flowers from forming.

 

[Trellum]

So sorry to hear that H.C. Heartland! I truly hope your wisteria isn't dead! If I were you I'd advice your mom not to do something too drastic right now! I've had a lot plants that seemed death, but after a few months they'd give me a huge surprise and start showing signs of life again. I'd ask your mom to wait and see what happens, but don't keep your hopes too high... just in case!

 

[H.C. Heartland]

Thanks! I'm going to tell her what everyone is writing on it. I just read that they can go dormant so I hope that is all that has happened. She had it trimmed so that it looked vine-like over her garden. If it delays past July then something might be wrong but she said she is going to leave it up until next spring just in case. It was a rough winter and spring this year with a lot of variance in temperatures.

 

[H.C. Heartland]

I just wanted to update this post that it is June and the leaves on the Wisteria have begun growing! We are so excited that it is not dead. They should have bloomed by now so we will miss that. But it looks like by next year if the winter season doesn't damage them, we will have a new vine. It was the highlight of my trip home to see the leaves fight to make a come back!

 

[Chuck]

I just wanted to update this post that it is June and the leaves on the Wisteria have begun growing! We are so excited that it is not dead. They should have bloomed by now so we will miss that. But it looks like by next year if the winter season doesn't damage them, we will have a new vine. It was the highlight of my trip home to see the leaves fight to make a come back!

Have you seen how invasive Wisteria can be?

 

[H.C. Heartland]

Have you seen how invasive Wisteria can be?

Yes! We had to cut it back as it was starting to scale up the garage door. But when we cut it back (and maybe I should have mentioned that in the initial post now that I think of it) it did not seem to be harmed in anyway. And yesterday my husband spotted what he thinks is a bud so who knows maybe we will get some bloom late in the season.