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michelej_gw

How & when do you prune a trumpet vine and wysteria?

MicheleJ
18 years ago

I've planted two trumpet vines in my garden this year, which grow onto a privacy trellis. One is an "Indian Summer", the other an orange one. I had a couple of blooms on the Indian Summer, nothing on the orange since it was brand new. I'm not sure if I should be pruning these now, in the spring, or at all, and what do I prune? Some of the main stems are woody, so I am thinking I should leave them, but since I am new to vines, I just don't know what to do with them. I also have a wysteria, very woody, cut it right back last year when we moved here, no blooms but it is going to be 7 this year from my understanding. Any suggestions?

Comments (6)

  • PhillyBadger
    18 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks for posting such a detailed how-to. My well-established vine has been on the infamous three-year plan (it was pulling the porch off when we bought the house); i think finally time to start encouraging flowers instead of merely discouraging structural damage to the house. This -- how to distinguish between a flower spur and a leaf spur -- is exactly what i needed.

  • Nigella
    18 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    In my climate I shovel prune them both 12 months a year, mulch them with cinder blocks and feed them Round-Up weekly. I'm still losing the battle.

  • helena_z8_ms
    18 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Bump!!

  • davg
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    (I may have posted this twice already, so difficult to get one through though. Here we go again).

    I have an arbor which I want to use for shade. Two hardy kiwi and 1 duchman pipe are doing their part, but 2 trumpet vines are (in a word) failing. Basically what's happening is that, despite a strong and healthy run vertically up the leg of the arbor, all horizontal growth dies off each winter, leaving me to tie up this year's "crop" of new horizontal shoots on the lats of the arbor. I was hoping that the previous year's horizontal shoots, which I religiously tied up to provide shade, would survive and prosper and help serve my effort to vegitate the entire top of the arbor. The pruning I do is to remove all new shoots that do not reach horizontally on top of the arbor. And, of course, I have to nutie and cut off the previous year's dead shoots every spring/early-summer. Again, veritcal growth from ground to top of arbor is healthy, stocky and strong. Plenty of horizontal runners, but they die every winter.

  • julia
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I also prune trumpet vine when it is dormant, often as late as March. Just do it before it leafs out so you can see the structure. I hate to pass this on but another GW member pointed out that pruning encourages clones to pop up. This makes sense, but it seems that eventually a partly cloudy day also encourages the yen to reproduce.

    Below is a link from one of my favorite pruning sites on that wisteria issue.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Wisteria Pruning

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