Grafting wisteria to flower?

[Cenovak]

Has anyone tried grafting a branch from a wisteria that flowers to one that does not? I have a huge old Japanese wisteria at least 30 years old that has never bloomed (not looking for advice on that), and a Chinese wisteria that blooms like a champ. (I would graft with a known-to-flower Japanese wisteria but I don't have one.) Looking for someone who has ever thread- or approach-grafted wisteria.

 

[rockm]

Has anyone tried grafting a branch from a wisteria that flowers to one that does not? I have a huge old Japanese wisteria at least 30 years old that has never bloomed (not looking for advice on that), and a Chinese wisteria that blooms like a champ. (I would graft with a known-to-flower Japanese wisteria but I don't have one.) Looking for someone who has ever thread- or approach-grafted wisteria.

You may not be looking for advice on how to care for the Japanese wisteria, but if you're not pruning correctly, a graft may not reliably flower either and your work will be wasted.

The plant you have has long branches, that indicates you're not pruning hard enough. I'd cut those back by at least half, insuring the cut is into old wood. Wisteria have to be pruned hard to help induce flowering.

 

[Cenovak]

You are right about optimizing the grafts for blooming; I am not looking for advice on blooming is I have had the tree for almost 10 years and taken advice from multiple professionals, which includes cutting everything back religiously, keeping it in water, under potting, not under potting, this fertilizer and that fertilizer, amount of light, defoliation, etc. etc. (In this case I was letting it run to strengthen the roots in preparation for a major cut back of all the limbs.) I bought it from a professional who never got it to bloom either. Some wisteria trees simply don't bloom, whether in a pot or in a garden.

 

[Mats Hagström]

Sorry I’m late to the party. I’m in the same situation. Wisteria should not be that difficult to graft. And I think your idea is the way to go and will work. I’m planning on grafting my flowering Japanese to my non flowering but much larger Chinese. I’m going to do the grafts at the first sign of bud swelling. I think the key is to not do it too early in dormancy. Because the are vines you should be able to have a long segment of tissue contact. I may put a plastic bag over the graft.

If I can find scion I’d prefer to graft mine in a white variety

Good luck with yours

 

[Mats Hagström]

BTW I let one branch run up the side of my two story house. I’m guessing that branch grew 30’ last summer(much more sun up high). I did an air layer in August. By October I had a bunch of roots. I have warm fall weather in San Francisco. I’ll separate the branch and put a pot on the roots. The only problem is the roots will not reach the ground because the branch is stuck on the side of my house. I’ll have to prop up the pot until I eventually cut the branch later to move it.

I’ll try to follow up after the grafting in spring

 

[Cenovak]

Sorry I’m late to the party. I’m in the same situation. Wisteria should not be that difficult to graft. And I think your idea is the way to go and will work. I’m planning on grafting my flowering Japanese to my non flowering but much larger Chinese. I’m going to do the grafts at the first sign of bud swelling. I think the key is to not do it too early in dormancy. Because the are vines you should be able to have a long segment of tissue contact. I may put a plastic bag over the graft.

If I can find scion I’d prefer to graft mine in a white variety

Good luck with yours

Let me know how yours goes!

 

[doc spring _work]

Sorry I’m late to the party. I’m in the same situation. Wisteria should not be that difficult to graft. And I think your idea is the way to go and will work. I’m planning on grafting my flowering Japanese to my non flowering but much larger Chinese. I’m going to do the grafts at the first sign of bud swelling. I think the key is to not do it too early in dormancy. Because the are vines you should be able to have a long segment of tissue contact. I may put a plastic bag over the graft.

If I can find scion I’d prefer to graft mine in a white variety

Good luck with yours

If I'm not mistaken this should be very successful, although wisteria only has 10 actual species there are thousands of varieties due to how well the grafts trade genetic information (and self pollination among these different mixes) creating different varieties of flowers, (similarly to roses) though grafting alone typically will not create a true change in offspring (without outside intervention such as cross pollination) it still should be very successful at flowering a stubborn non-flowering plant