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Wisteria Not Flowering

by Ron
(Baltimore)

Question:

I reside in an urban community but by luck and rare to the area I have a rather large yard. When I purchased the home 20 years ago said yard was concrete, which I manually removed and laid in soil.

My problem is many of the plant life I have added to the garden will in fact grow and grow well but not bloom. For example I had whisperia (Wisteria?) - don't know about that spelling LOL, which as grown all over my fence and over a white pine so it is healthy but never blooms and this is not the only plant, yet I have roses and others that do well.

Of course I suspect due to this being a city garden the problem is in the soil. Is there any means of enriching the soil and if so will this promote the plant life to start to bloom. Many thanks I appreciate your help.

Sincerely RonZ

Answer:

There can be several reasons for plants not flowering. With your Wisteria climber I suspect these possible reasons:

• the plant is not mature enough yet to flower. Wisteria can take several years before they will flower.


• the aspect is too shaded. The plant needs part shade to full sun if possible. If the plant is in full shade it will be very slow to set flowers.


• the soil is too rich! A lot of nitrogen in the soil will promote a lot of leafy growth but no flowers.

A way to make your Wisteria flower is to starve the plant. I know that this sounds strange but it does encourage the plant to produce flowers. It tricks it into 'thinking' that times are hard and that is has to reproduce. Drought or cutting some of the roots can cause the stress needed to force the plant into flowering.
Also a high potash fertilizer might help. Potash promotes flowering and fruiting and your garden might be lacking in that.

Your soil might not necessarily be the cause of your wisteria not flowering if the plants are growing healthy. If you brought in good quality top soil a city garden soil can be just as good as any other soil. Regular adding of garden compost and mulching with organic matter can help to improve and keep a good soil quality.

Selecting the plants well for the location and aspect is also crucial for lots of blooms. Plants that like a lot of sun won't flower well in a shaded spot. Instead they grow a lot of foliage. Maybe you have to move some of your plants to a more suitable spot.