You're a zone warmer than me so things will likely be a bit earlier for you. My wisteria blooms around the May long weekend. I usually start checking to see how the buds survived the winter begining in April.

Both wisteria and trumpet vine are extremely vigorous. I've got a good routine down now for controlling the wisterias. Trumpet vine scares me though. I wouldn't plant one here because it's a too vigorous spreader from the roots. Wisteria throws root suckers too but not too many here. Are they planted where you have easy access to control the root suckers?

You will see the flower buds before any leaf growth.
I do not see anything on mine, yet.

My Pink Wisteria tree got its first bloom last fall. Only three little blooms, but hey! I was thrilled!
Do you think it will bloom this Spring? Do you think it will have more flowers this year after that light flush last Fall.
There are lots of buds forming on it right now, but I don't know if they are bloom buds or leaf buds.
~Annie

annie - my first wisteria tree took five years to do the first spring bloom, but it bloomed every summer during those years as it was building up mature flowering wood. The flowerbuds are usually noticeably fatter than leaf buds. In those early years, I'd see fatter buds in early spring and think 'this year it's going to bloom!' but it didn't happen for five years. But when it started to bloom, it's just put on a bigger and better show every year. Maybe you'll get lucky in your warmer zone - I know I lost some flowerbuds to late frosts which delayed the first year of bloom for me. Whatever happens this spring, keep up the heavy pruning of new growth to encourage the build-up of flowerning wood and promote the summer flush of flowers.

Thank you woodyoak!
I will!
Our weather is in Spring flux right now. Warm, cold, warm, cold...I hope it stabilizes soon and we don't get an Arctic blast that spoils all the spring flowers.
That happens all too often.

I thought it might be useful for you new wisteria growers to read this extract from the maintenance manual I put together for my garden:

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Wisterias are outstandingly beautiful plants when they flower. BUT they need diligent care or they can turn into monsters! DO NOT neglect the wisterias! They are almost impossible to get rid of (there are 1000+ year old ones in Japan and China). It is far easier to properly maintain them than to risk neglecting them. Maintaining them, fortunately, is simple:

� All new curly/whippy new growth should be pinched back to 6" or so from its point of origin. This can be virtually a daily task in spring and early summer when they are growing fast. A long-arm pruner makes it easy to reach the top of the tree. Do not let the trees get taller than can be reached with the long-arm pruner. (If you are a subsequent homeowner, we probably left the pruner for you � check the garage in the front corner on the right side.) The pruners can be purchased at Lee Valley Tools in Burlington or through their on-line store.

� Watch for root suckers and remove them as soon as you see them. Most will appear near the base of the trees but they can appear anywhere in a 15-20� � or more � radius of the trees. When you mow the grass, inspect the areas near the trees for root suckers. Ideally you want to remove the suckers by tearing them off the underlying root to remove the bud-wood from the root. If it's too difficult to dig down, cut off the sucker close to the ground. More suckers will likely arise from the same location when the sucker is cut off rather than torn off the root.

� Do not allow any of the root suckers to grow into the main tree or form another tree. The Chinese wisteria in particular is a grafted plant so the root suckers are likely a wild form which may never flower or take decades to mature enough to do so.

� When the tree is bare of leaves, remove any seed pods you see (it's almost impossible to find them on the Chinese wisteria until the leaves drop in the fall.) You do not want to have to deal with removing seedlings! The seedpods will explode and fling seeds around the garden on the first warm day of spring unless they are removed! No not neglect this chore!

� If the trees get too big or you want to shape them, prune them in very early spring before they leaf out or flower.

Properly cared for, the wisterias are spectacular; neglected, they are a nightmare!

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My pruning 'rules' are simplier/easies than most of the detailed pruning instructions you can find on the Web. But my way works well and you are more likely to do the pruning if it's simple than trying to follow more complicated/detailed instructions. Here's what our Chinese wisteria 'tree'/shrub looked like last sping after about 10 years of following my pruning approach:
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I've got my fingers crossed that the Japanese wisteria (on the right side of the last picture) will bloom this spring. It is 5 years old now and has flowering wood, but it may not be mature enough yet to bloom. One can hope.... :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: long arm pruner

Sorry all! My post replies are not coming to my e-mail, although I have marked the box for them to do so. So I had no idea I had replies. I will be working on that....:-)

The wisteria and trumpet vine were both put in last spring. They are growing up a tree "trunk" that used to be the largest old tree in our little town. The top came down in a storm about 6 or 7 years ago, leaving the bottom 15-20 feet of stump still firmly in place. Some type of flowerless, woody vines were growing up it and had covered it already when I moved in (my husband has owned this place for over 10 years, but I have only been here for 3 and it had no type of landscaping or flower beds at all when I moved in) and they are very aggressive and thick, so I thought 'why not pretty it up with some flowers?'. My hope is that the wisteria DOES get very aggressive and eventually cover the whole tree for lovely spring blooms, and I was actually thinking about putting another one on the other side of the tree for a fuller effect. From your description/instruction this may not be necessary (?). I will try to post a picture of the tree stump at some point soon. My almost-2 year old makes getting even small tasks done tricky!! There really isn't anything else for it to grow on, as the tree stump is located at the corner of our property and bordered by the sidewalk/street on 2 sides and our yard around it is bare. I planted Stella D'Oro daylilies around the base in a half circle (the back side of the stump is still taken over by whatever vines were there before) and also planted rembrandt tulip bulbs there, which are starting to pop up now. As far as when it will bloom, that is anyones guess. I bought the plant in a gallon sized container last spring from a local farm supply store with a nursery, so I don't know how old it is. It only grew maybe 6-8 ft last year, and I don't see any kind of buds on it at all really yet. I know my dad has a few that grow like crazy around his deck and they have been blooming since the year after he planted them.

Thanks for all your help and advice! I would like to get back here a little more often if the toddler tornado co-operates this year. I have forgotten so much and will have alot of questions as I start to build up my beds again.