Wisteria advice

[Give It A Go]

When we moved into our first house 2 years ago the garden had some lovely plants but had obviously been unloved for a few years and had become a bit of a jungle. The main culprit was a "tree" that was very overgrown and took up around a quarter of the garden, with some of the "branches" being supported by pieces of wood. Nothing could grow underneath and even the lawn had become very patchy beneath it. As this was our first house, and first garden, I was completely new to gardening and I had no idea what it was but knew that I wanted it to be chopped down to open up the space. Since then the stump has been constantly sprouting new vines that grow really quickly, which we have tried to keep cutting back but it's a constant battle. We have also tried to take up the whole stump including roots but they are just too big and I think they even go under the concrete base of our garage.
I've recently realised that it is probably wisteria, and I think the previous owner had planted it by the garage in the hope that it would trail along the side of it, however it actually grew/grows in the other direction, away from the garage and presumably towards the sunlight, and so has nothing to support it.
I'm not particularly averse to letting it grow back as long as it can be managed, so can it be trained to grow along the garage? If we were to get rid of the garage (which we are potentially thinking about) how else could it be supported? If we were to keep it, do you think that we would see it flower relatively quickly despite cutting it back to a stump or would it take a few years to recover?
Alternatively how do we finally kill it off so that we don't have to keep cutting the vines back?
Thanks in advance

 

[Chuck]

When we moved into our first house 2 years ago the garden had some lovely plants but had obviously been unloved for a few years and had become a bit of a jungle. The main culprit was a "tree" that was very overgrown and took up around a quarter of the garden, with some of the "branches" being supported by pieces of wood. Nothing could grow underneath and even the lawn had become very patchy beneath it. As this was our first house, and first garden, I was completely new to gardening and I had no idea what it was but knew that I wanted it to be chopped down to open up the space. Since then the stump has been constantly sprouting new vines that grow really quickly, which we have tried to keep cutting back but it's a constant battle. We have also tried to take up the whole stump including roots but they are just too big and I think they even go under the concrete base of our garage.
I've recently realised that it is probably wisteria, and I think the previous owner had planted it by the garage in the hope that it would trail along the side of it, however it actually grew/grows in the other direction, away from the garage and presumably towards the sunlight, and so has nothing to support it.
I'm not particularly averse to letting it grow back as long as it can be managed, so can it be trained to grow along the garage? If we were to get rid of the garage (which we are potentially thinking about) how else could it be supported? If we were to keep it, do you think that we would see it flower relatively quickly despite cutting it back to a stump or would it take a few years to recover?
Alternatively how do we finally kill it off so that we don't have to keep cutting the vines back?
Thanks in advance

GreenLight Stump and Vine Killer or any product with Triclopyr as its active ingredient. Cut the thing down and paint the cut stumps surface or drill a bunch of 1/2 inch holes and fill them up with the stuff

 

[alp]

Can we have some photos please?

 

[Silentrunning]

Wisteria cab be amazing plants. They take a lot of work but the rewards can be unbelievable. Take a look at the following video and see if you still want to destroy it.

 

[alp]

You could easily make some posts to support it. You could find out where it is growing towards and round there dig 3 to 4 holes and put an air brick at the bottom of the hole and then pour concrete or postcrete to firm the posts in. You could slot some horizontal beams on top so that the plant can have something to cling onto. Wisteria, if managed well, is an asset to a house. Are you sure it is wisteria?

 

[Sean Regan]

Wisteria is like a weed. It grows constantly through the Spring and Summer.
If you want it to grow along the side of a garage, this is possible, but it will need some support.


Here's one we have trained along a side fence. It's supported by being attached to wires strung at intervals along the fence between "eyes" screwed into concrete posts. Unwanted side shoots, particularly numerous sprouting from the base of the trunk get removed every week. It's a job that lasts for months in the summer.

This is another trained up an old tree stump.

Then this one on a purpose built pergola on the back of the house. Actually there are two, one growing up from each end and crossing in the middle. It's May and because it was pruned hard in January, there's no foliage yet.

They're easily trained and can be adjusted if they start growing in the wrong direction. Think of them as a "leaky hose," the growth energy will be directed to those side shoots nearer the base. To get it to do what you want, choose the branches you want to grow and remove any others.
Prune it in January, down to two to four buds per side shoot.
If you are ruthless enough, you'll get masses of blooms before the foliage takes over, you'll see this in April. No sign of any leaves yet.

By June the flowers will have gone and the foliage takes over.

 

[Give It A Go]

Thanks for all the replies, you are bringing me round to the idea of keeping it (if it is indeed wisteria - maybe someone could confirm? - pictures below).

 

[alp]

Definitely wisteria! Please keep it! It adds so much charm to your property! Just keep it under control.

 

[Sean Regan]

It's doing its own thing, which is what Wisteria does. Producing no end of side shoots.

You'll have to decide what you want it to do. Find the main stem and choose which branches you want to train and where you want them to grow and prune off all the others.

But it won't give up, it'll will continue to produce unwanted side shoots.

 

[Sean Regan]

To give you an idea how resilient wisteria can be.
When we bought our house in 1972, there was a small wisteria on the side of the garage.
Over time I trained it over a pergola I built next to our new koi pool. But it was starting to look ugly with a lot of "wood."

Last year it was starting to rot from the base and some of the huge branches were dying off.

So I cut them down and dug out the rotted trunks.

and replaced it this year with a new wisteria in the middle of the bed.

We were left with just one good branch of the original one.

It had some rot at the base, but I covered it with silicone in the hopes it would survive as it's trained along the side fence over the door in it and half way along the pergola on the back of the house.

However this year it's still pushing out lots of new growth. So I keep pruning this off except for the one branch you can see.

As have two branches I'm training at the other end from where it had previously layered itself. These new branches have already reached the top of the pergola. So by next year hopefully there will be three on this pergola.