[Reproduction an d m 
ooming 
Wistaria plants can be produced from seeds, layers or grafts. If a 
definite variety is desired, reproduction by layering or grafting is neces¬ 
sary. Vigorous plants can be produced from seeds, but many of these 
seedlings do not bloom even after twenty years in a location. Some 
seedlings bloom much earlier, but the flowers are likely to be poor. 
When flowers are the first consideration, early production can be 
brought about by planting in poor soil and providing a minimum of 
moisture. In our Cape May County experimental grounds, Wistaria 
bloom in profusion. There the soil is almost pure sand, and none too 
fertile; it is moist enough during the winter and early spring, but there 
is practically no summer rainfall. Under these conditions, not only one 
year grafts, but nearly all two and three-year-old Chinese Wistaria pro¬ 
duce their purple and white flowers in abundance. Japanese Wistaria 
also mature quickly under these conditions and are covered with flowers 
at five years of age. 
A farmer is said to have produced bacon, properly streaked lean 
and fat, by feasting his pigs every other day and starving them the 
intervening days. So it is with Wistaria; feed them for growth and starve 
them if you want flowers. We recommend that you get growth first 
through watering; then work for flowers if they have not already come. 
Under perfect growing conditions, the varieties with the long clusters 
can not be expected to bloom for some time after transplanting, but they 
are worth waiting for. In our country, as in the Orient, people travel 
many miles to see these beautiful vines in bloom. 
Regardless of age, Wistaria plants may not produce their best flowers 
the first year after transplanting. To make better flowers on vines which 
have already bloomed, the past season's growth should be cut back to 
about eight inches each spring, long before the growing season. 
raining an 
d u 
ses 
Wistaria is generally used as a vine, but may be used advan¬ 
tageously in tree or standard form. With a trunk five to six feet high, it 
is effective for formal uses, and as a small tree, for a garden entrance or 
for accent in a formal garden. For this purpose the vine is staked to a 
neat bamboo pole for the first five or six years because the top is at first 
too heavy for the small trunk. 
The lower branches are removed, making a single stem of the desired 
length. The resulting tree-shaped Wistaria is known as a standard. 
When Wistaria is used as a vine to cover pergolas and trellises, best 
results are obtained if not more than three main stems are permitted to 
grow. The subsequent pruning should be copied from the system fol¬ 
lowed in producing espalier fruit trees. The selected leaders are guided 
and supported by their own wires, which may be either horizontal or 
upright, and placed one to two feet apart. This treatment is used to pre¬ 
vent intertwining of the lower branches. Such intertwining later causes 
strangulation and decay. 
[ 5 ] 
