Evening star., 1945-10-04
This and That
By Charles E. TraceUeU.

CHEVY CHASE, Md.
Dear Sir:
we nave huge wiStaria covering a
high, heavy wire fence next to the back
OF our house. Three years ago, without
ngurlng on the results, foolishly placed
a teeler OF 1t between drain pipe and
the side of the house.
Now it has completely wound around
the pipe, is fast on the way to covering
the roof, and the entire back and side of
the house is dense with it.
1T looked so pretty that we hesitated
to trim it-but now realize that it will
have to be cut away as most of the
windows have been blocked off by it.
So we'd like your advice, please. I
read some place, that wistaria is de-
cidedly adverse to drastic pruning.
The mother plant is SO healthy and
has such profusion of lovely blooms
each spring that I'm afraid if we cut
this off-growth away entirely, it might
weaken the main shrub.
"At what time of the year, and how
much, should it be cut away?
Needless to say, the birds love 1t,
especially the sparrows which spend most
of the summer cleaning it of jap
beetles.
Very truly yours, X. S. S."
Pruning should be done now, the
sooner the better.
To keep within bounds, a wistaria
preferably should be pruned throughout
the summer.
But better late than never, and shoots
may be cut back now from one-half to
one-third of their length.
If one does prune all summer, from
time to time, more spurs will be
formed. These are the short, crooked
branches that bear the flowers next
year.
If one desires to decrease the bush
in size, it will not hurt it to cut it back
now.
1t is common belief that best results
are attained if wistaria vines are left
severely alone, but this idea applies
mostly to the ultimate profusion of the
bush or vine.
II one comes to the point where this
protusion is something of nuisance,
there is nothing to do except do a little
cutting back, always a hard thing to do,
and often an unpleasant one.
Authorities say If pruning is done, it
should be pruning for spurs just as in
an apple tree.
With apples it is this way:
In certain varieties, most of the fruit
is borne on short crooked growths called
spurs. These spurs begin to form on
two-year old wood, and grow very
slowly
If spurs are pruned off particular
,f 1ss~1f.
placed, and that part of the tree cannot
produce any fruit.
Apple tree pruning, however, is real
science. BY proper pruning at the right
time a tree may be induced to make
pretty and fruitful growth, whereas If
the pruning is withheld. the tree may
grow with too many uprights, with suck
ers, and with other bad effects.
Pruning luxuriant vines such as the
wistaria offers none of these problems.
1t is simply a matter of getting up ones
nerve and whacking away, taking off
the undesirable growth.
Nature is large, she contains great
latitudes, and will often produce good
growth after the homeowner has yio-
lated all of the pruning precepts.
In our yard there was a magnificent
wistaria vine on tree which blew over
in storm IL years ago.
Despite every effort to get rid of that
wistaria in the middle of the lawn, with
no support, it comes up every spring.
So one may feel certain that pruning
will not harm a wistaria in the long run.
The usual type is very hardy, and often
benefits from normal sort of pruning,
even j cutting which NAV strike fl1e
owner as very drastic at the time.