Hello,

Can anyone help me identify what type of tree/plant this is? It's very viney and also grows flower purple flowers. I'm also trying to figure out how i should prune this because since it has a bunch of old growth the new growth will only have flowers and will constantly have to be cut off since the tree is already too big which is not what i want to happen! Any help is greatly appreciated.

Hello! What you have is a woody vine, Wisteria, which has been trained as a tree. I'm not sure of the variety; however blooms on these begin in early spring and lasts about a month. If you want to trim it, whack away. I don't think that trimming will prevent it from blooming, though. If you don't like the blooms, you would need to remove them when they're blooming. In your zone blooming could begin as early as next month.

gardenfish said:Hello! What you have is a woody vine, Wisteria, which has been trained as a tree. I'm not sure of the variety; however blooms on these begin in early spring and lasts about a month. If you want to trim it, whack away. I don't think that trimming will prevent it from blooming, though. If you don't like the blooms, you would need to remove them when they're blooming. In your zone blooming could begin as early as next month.

Hey Gardenfish,

Thanks for identifying this for me. In regards to pruning. Do you think it would be possible to cut everything off or cut everything really far back or would that potentially kill the plant or cause flowers to not bloom later?

Well, I will tell you that wisterias are very tough plants! I've seen them taken down almost all the way and only a few leaves were remaining. You always run the risk of killing by removing all the foliage. Yes, I think severe pruning would delay the bloom, but not necessarily stop the bloom altogether.
I'm going to Google this because now I'm interested to see what more I can find out! I do know that the Asian varieties are considered to be invasive in many states, including my own. I'm not sure, but I think yours is a native variety.

It doesn't look like Wisteria to me. If this is its current state, then it definitely isn't. Does it lose its leaves in the winter? What shape are the flowers -- tubular, pea-shaped, daisy-like?

Regardless of what it actually is, most vining plants can be cut back very severely and they will grow back. Like halfway or more. I would, however, wait until Spring.

The arrangement of the leaves do not look quite right for a Wisteria.

We have wisterias here that have all their leaves... right now. And there are many different varieties. I based the ID on the vines and the topmost tip of the lead vine in the last pic. In that pic the leaf arrangement show up much clearer than in the other pics.

Are they that shiny? That's the real issue I have with the ID.

Some of them are.

That's not Wisteria.
Probably some member of the Bignoniaceae. We will need flowers to ID it.
If you keep pruning it hard, it's not likely to flower, so give it a bit of a chance to grow.

I don't think its a wisteria. The leaves are wrong... wrong shape, wrong configuration, wrong color...

We really need to know what the flowers look like.

I believe the original poster stated he didn't care if it didn't flower.

Without more information, I'll join the "excessively fertilized" and "excessively pruned" Wisteria sp. team.

It looks to clearly have pinnate compound leaves that are alternately arranged. I don't know any Bignonia sp. that fit that bill, but I've only made the pleasant acquaintance of our native Bignonia capreolata.

Knowing what the flowers look like would help clarify the ID. So far, we know they are purple.

I absolutely agree with that! The characteristics help key the ID.

Tubular leans one way; long floriferous plumes swerve another.

Hey,

I don't have any pictures of the flowers but there is some new growth that is about to pop out some flowers. Also i'm in houston texas and so it never got cold enough for this thing to loose all of it's leaves as well.

Well, that's great! When it's in full bloom, please take a pic and post it. I think the bloom will determine the ID.

I wonder if it might be the vine with a Common Name of Evergreen Wisteria (Callerya reticulata)

plantladylin said:I wonder if it might be the vine with the common name Evergreen Wisteria (Callerya reticulata)

I think it's a wisteria. We moved into this house a year ago and i think that is what the owner mentioned. It does have purple flowers

That's what I think it is.