hi .. there is a wisteria growing in one of the gardens i work in, and earlier this year i was keeping an eye on it, pleased to see it producing a lot of buds off all the knarly hand-like branches .. looked forward to its bloom .. well, i'm not sure exactly when, but all the buds turned to dust, and the plant just seems to have stopped, somehow .. i couldn't just leave it, so i cut it back, found live wood, and hope this will somehow stimulate it .. like a push start .. while rationalizing, i thought of the wetness of winter .. otherwise, i'm flumoxed .. it bloomed beautifully last year, and i believe it has been in the ground, blooming for the past ten years, at least .. thanks ..
I suspect that it might be a fungal disease, but I can't say for sure because I have never seen a wisteria with disease. When you mentioned that the buds turned to dust, do you mean that they have a powdery coating on it before they dropped off? Or did they just disintegrated? If it is the former, it may well be powdery mildew. It is known to cause damage to and loss of the young flowering buds. Other foliage fungal diseases are usually obvious - circular marks or blotches on the leaves (Cercosporae spp) and black spots with necrotic centres (Phyllosticta spp.). However, none of these cause serious damage to the plant itself. More serious and deadly, however, is Agrobacterium tumefacens , which causes crown gall disease of a wide range of broad leaved plants, including members of the rose family (apple, pear, peach, cherry, almond, raspberry and roses). There is no cure for this bacterial infection. But all tools used to remove the plant should be disinfected. The bacterial invades through wounds in the roots or stems of the plants. It is reported to be inevitably lethal if it attacks the root system. It can attack even the mostr robust and most mature of wisterias. But fortunately it is rare. The other possibility has nothing to do with actual infective diseases - the buds may have been caught in an unseasonally late freeze. But this would seem to be highly unlikely on Vancouver Island. Wisteria in general are tough and disease free. I personally have not seen any diseases in the several that I have been growing for over 20 years. So, the overall available information and resources out there are skimpy at best. Most books and web sites are apt to address this with a short statement that it is disease free. If you are interested, you should perhaps seek out a copy of Peter Valder's book on Wisterias.
Or, if the mystery remains unsolved, you can ask Peter in person when he speaks to the <a href="http://www.vancouverhardyplant.org/index.html#whatsnew" title="Vancouver Hardy Plant Group">Vancouver Hardy Plant Group</a> (and the public) on September 12.
i appreciate your input, and thank you for the suggestion of mr. valder's book .. it is unlikely i will be in vancouver to hear him .. do you think i've done damage to the vine by cutting it back .. i'm thinking it will be fine, once it works through the shock .. although, maybe it was already in a kind of shock as its flowers had stopped .. to answer your question, the flowers simply dried on the stock and no leaves broke .. just a strange sort of a thing to see .. i'm hoping it isn't the deadly agrobacterium tumefacens .. i think the next time i'm in that garden i'll look a bit more closely around the base of the plant .. thank you, again ..
If the root system is healthy or viable, pruning it back will not kill it. The only down side is that it will reduce the next season's flower production. But if those mature woods are dead and diseased anyway, it makes no difference and should be removed.
thanks .. i knew that cutting it back would likely set it back some .. i'm okay with that as long as the new growth that comes is healthy .. the mature wood is green and seems healthy enough .. as far as i am able to tell .. again, i appreciate all input ..
