We had a nice purple wisteria covering our patio for some years, but for some reason the vine separated from the root and the upper part died. This must have been a signal to the root system, which then took off like a shot, putting sprouts up through a good portion of our back lawn. Not good. I've been using a herbicide on what does pop up, and have dug out some of the large roots, and hope that this has discouraged the root, but am resigned to probably tearing out the lawn and re-doing it along with a better sprinkler system.

We'd love to train another wisteria over the patio, but don't want the roots to overtake the lawn area again. Can wisteria be grown in an oversize container, probably concrete or fiberglass, with bottom drain holes sealed and new ones bored into the bottom edge of the container instead so that roots can be 'discouraged' from seeking a new home underground? I figure a container would have to be 24 inches on a side, minimum, to keep the plant from auto-bonsai-ing. Anyone have experience doing this kind of thing? Many thanks.

I have had one in a 21" pot sitting at the outer end of an arch for I think 3 years now. It's in dappled shade most of the day. But the plant on the inner end of the arch, planted by precious owner who was a Master Gardener, was planted direct in the ground with a 3" trunk. I just sawed it down this month as it has become a problem to my roof and gutters and I'm getting too old to climb ladders and prune the thing properly anyway. The "sever and kill" job with brush killer applied to the stump appears to be working so far. No signs of new shoots on the ground. The potted one is on the left side of the arch in this photo taken around 3 years ago.


I trimmed the potted one off the arch before all this took place and plan to take it down to our rural cabin property for planting on steel corner posts (seated in cement) our chain-link fencing that surrounds the cabin. It seems OK just sitting on the rear driveway in the shade until I can take it down for planting there. There I think I can keep it pruned properly (down to 2 leaf/bloom buds per branch twice a year) without a ladder, as the steel L-shaped posts are only 6' tall.

I was planning, originally, to tip it out of the pot and trim the roots back as needed to keep it in the 21" pot there. Otherwise, I'd shift it to a slightly larger pot. In 4-5 years, it was reaching the center of the arch and well-entangled with the original plant on the right. But the right end (main plant on the arch) was just becoming too much of a monster and maintenance issue for me to allow it to remain. I do love them however. Replaceing with more manageable climbing roses.

@Dave @Jon double posts

Jim,
Maybe a better way to think of re-doing the lawn is that you want a new and improved sprinkler system. And, oh, while we're at it, let's get rid of the wisteria. It's not as painful to think about that way.

I have several wisteria in my yard. 2 are in the ground and one in a pot. An advantage of being in the pot is the plant feels threatened and produces ore blooms and, therefore, seed. This is done as a survival technique. Likewise, my local nursery said I should ram a spade into the ground around the in-ground plants every couple of years. It's the same principle in that the expansion is stopped, so it tries producing more seed. (As you may have guessed, I haven't done that in a number of years and am finding shoots in a number of places. Fortunately, both are back in the wooded area.)

The one in a pot is in the front yard. Last year, I had 2 or 3 racemes. This year, 15! Because it is in a pot, I'm trying to train it into more of a tree form, kind of like a patio tree rose. So far, it seems to be working.

You have the right idea about plugging drainage holes in the bottom. Not only would the wisteria escape, but other nearby trees and srubs would invade the pot. And then, you have a real mess on your hands.

crawgarden said:@Dave @Jon double posts

I deleted the first one, she just added an additional paragraph to the second one so it wasn't an exact duplicate.

Thanks for the answerbacks, people, but if anyone else wants to weigh-in, that's fine; still nervous about this. I'm also a bit unclear as to how big a pot I need to support an overhead foliage canopy maybe 3 by 10 feet. A rule of thumb on that would be welcome.