Wisteria from Hell
A few years ago my wife indicated that she wanted a Wisteria plant, a neighbor down the street has one and it is beautiful, it blooms once a year and has nice purple/blue flowers that look like clusters of grapes. Other than that it looks like an ornamental tree.
I bought my wife a very small Wisteria plant from Walmart for just a few dollars; it was only about 12 inches tall and supported by a stick in the pot but there was some fresh growth and looked promising.
I was told that Wisteria took about 2 years to get established and that I should not expect to get any flowers from it the first couple of years just keep it supported and water it often. I built the trellis you see in the first picture and planted it underneath.
That is when I learned that not all plants are created equally and I had bought the Wisteria plant from hell.
The little twig growing in the pot was just waiting to get out from it’s confinement before leashing out to take over the world… Within a month it had grown to the top of the trellis and was reaching out to the eave of the roof for more room to roam. I did not want the Wisteria to get into the roof so I trimmed back the wild vine branches. That just made it mad and suddenly there were dozen of new vines growing up and around the trellis. I wanted to try to control the vines and really thought I could so I spent a few days weaving the vines and tying them back to the top of the trellis.
The Wisteria surprised everyone by blooming the very first year and you can see the results in the first picture. We thought that was really neat so decided not to cut it down just yet so we let it grow for a while, This plant surprised everyone by blooming every time it got some rain all summer long and well into the fall. We have been told that this is impossible and that Wisteria does not re-flower this often or for this long of a season.
However we found that we had to get some stronger trimmers and keep trimming the vines off the house, it grew into the air conditioner and made a lot of noise when the vines hit the turning blades of the cooling fan.
I finally decided to cut the whole thing down before it killed someone. That was last year. The vines filled a pickup truck and I dug all the root up that I could. Well let me tell you that the roots would not die, there were some runners that waited till the main vine was gone before deciding to take over, I now have Wisteria coming up in my yard and I have to keep it mowed down to keep it from taking back over.
Before attempting to kill off the Wisteria from hell, my neighbor decided they wanted to try to grow one, I think they like pain and imprisonment, anyway they took a cutting and it died, then they took a root and it too died, so finally they took a couple of seeds and germinated them, well look out neighbor because it took right off and became the new Wisteria from hell. The neighbor has since passed away and their family did not want to destroy the Wisteria so if you look at the second picture you will discover what the plant will do if left alone for a couple of years.
Look closely at the tree next to the house and you will see purple clusters up about 25 or 30 feet, yes it is taking over the tree too. The vines have grown into the attic, around the poor car that is trapped under the carport and shows no sign of slowing down.
I collected the seeds from this monster and sold them on eBay for 2 years before I ran out. I got $5.00 for 10 seeds and generally sold 2 or 3 packs a week, Along with the seeds I gave instructions for planting the seeds.
A few years ago my wife indicated that she wanted a Wisteria plant, a neighbor down the street has one and it is beautiful, it blooms once a year and has nice purple/blue flowers that look like clusters of grapes. Other than that it looks like an ornamental tree.
I bought my wife a very small Wisteria plant from Walmart for just a few dollars; it was only about 12 inches tall and supported by a stick in the pot but there was some fresh growth and looked promising.
I was told that Wisteria took about 2 years to get established and that I should not expect to get any flowers from it the first couple of years just keep it supported and water it often. I built the trellis you see in the first picture and planted it underneath.
That is when I learned that not all plants are created equally and I had bought the Wisteria plant from hell.
The little twig growing in the pot was just waiting to get out from it’s confinement before leashing out to take over the world… Within a month it had grown to the top of the trellis and was reaching out to the eave of the roof for more room to roam. I did not want the Wisteria to get into the roof so I trimmed back the wild vine branches. That just made it mad and suddenly there were dozen of new vines growing up and around the trellis. I wanted to try to control the vines and really thought I could so I spent a few days weaving the vines and tying them back to the top of the trellis.
The Wisteria surprised everyone by blooming the very first year and you can see the results in the first picture. We thought that was really neat so decided not to cut it down just yet so we let it grow for a while, This plant surprised everyone by blooming every time it got some rain all summer long and well into the fall. We have been told that this is impossible and that Wisteria does not re-flower this often or for this long of a season.
However we found that we had to get some stronger trimmers and keep trimming the vines off the house, it grew into the air conditioner and made a lot of noise when the vines hit the turning blades of the cooling fan.
I finally decided to cut the whole thing down before it killed someone. That was last year. The vines filled a pickup truck and I dug all the root up that I could. Well let me tell you that the roots would not die, there were some runners that waited till the main vine was gone before deciding to take over, I now have Wisteria coming up in my yard and I have to keep it mowed down to keep it from taking back over.
Before attempting to kill off the Wisteria from hell, my neighbor decided they wanted to try to grow one, I think they like pain and imprisonment, anyway they took a cutting and it died, then they took a root and it too died, so finally they took a couple of seeds and germinated them, well look out neighbor because it took right off and became the new Wisteria from hell. The neighbor has since passed away and their family did not want to destroy the Wisteria so if you look at the second picture you will discover what the plant will do if left alone for a couple of years.
Look closely at the tree next to the house and you will see purple clusters up about 25 or 30 feet, yes it is taking over the tree too. The vines have grown into the attic, around the poor car that is trapped under the carport and shows no sign of slowing down.
I collected the seeds from this monster and sold them on eBay for 2 years before I ran out. I got $5.00 for 10 seeds and generally sold 2 or 3 packs a week, Along with the seeds I gave instructions for planting the seeds.
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