I find it odd that it won't bloom for you in the shade. In South Carolina this stuff grows everywhere, even in deep woods settings and every spring/early summer the sides of the highways would explode in purple blossoms, even the ones in the shade. Last time I was up there, two years ago, the Wisteria was almost Kudzuu bad with its growth. I image with more sunlight, you could very well have a battle on your hands trying to keep it contained. That said, there's a house not far from me where the owner has trained their Wisteria to grow as a bush and it rarely gets more than eight feet tall. Every year when it blooms, I get more than a little ribbing from my wife saying, "I want one of those!"

Okay, do you know if that is an american or a chinese wisteria? I know from personal experiance that the chinese wisteria is very aggressive and once it's happy it can quickly take over. Wisteria is a perfect vine if you are wanting to make a tunnel with it but you will need to make some sort of arbor for it to follow. The arbor will need to be made of heavy duty materials or the vine will destroy it. My parents planted theirs on a chain link fence and within a few years of it being established it had twisted the top rail completely out of shape. As the vine ages though the stems will thicken up and it will eventually be able to support itself.

You don't need to cut the vine down each year in fact if you want to make a tunnel out of it you should only cut off the parts that head where you don't want them to go. You might have to spend some time weaving the vine in the direction you want it to grow. Keep it away from those trees on the other side of the driveway if at all possible because the vine will want to climb them and if it does it is fully capable of smothering them.

Also a happy chinese wisteria will send out underground runners and spread quickly. From what I understand the american wisteria is nowhere near as aggreesive.

The way that you are cutting it back each year may be what's preventing it from blooming. The soil it's growing in may also be depleted so you could try dumping some manure compost around it. I've seen wisteria growing and blooming just fine in partial shade so it should be blooming at least some where you have it growing.

Check out the tree tunnels post. The last picture is of a tunnel made of wisteria.

Kara~ The tree-tunnel post is what made me think of my Wisteria. I don't know what kind it is, but I can guess it's probably the aggressive one.
I let it grow on its own for three years before starting to cut it back like this. It never bloomed even then. It has reached out and grabbed the grapefruit tree, and this past summer it started spreading by runners. (Took a long time for that to happen, though)
The soil is rich and full of worms on that side of the path. The plant seems happy enough, but will not bloom. (Actually, if it bloomed where it is, I'd leave it there)

Leekle~ This isn't side-of-the-road shade, this is dark-and-wet-even-in-Florida-in-July-at-noon shade.

If you want a cutting, just say the word and your wife can try to make a shrub out of it. I can send you cuttings or rooted plants.
I imagine that in a pot, and pruned, it might be quite lovely.

Which may be what I end up trying myself.

If it's wisteria sinensis, it has a very long juvenile period before it starts blooming, much longer than most vines. I've heard people say as long as 7 years.

I don't think it likes Florida. We brought some down from Georgia 20 or 30 yrs ago and it has slowly declined since then. Just a few sprigs left now. Ditto dogwoods.

Papa Jim

I guess I didn't give enough information.
This Wisteria grows 30-40 feet tall, AT LEAST, every year.
It bloomed when we moved in here almost 6 years ago... but now the trees around it are bigger, so it gets more shade.
It's not declining, it's just not getting enough sunlight to flower. Can it stay rooted in shade if the plant is trained to the light?

Oh I know. I guess my chain of comments led to the idea that I was only talking about the ones on the roadsides, but I meant that the wisteria even grew in the deep woods and deep shade.

I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be okay to leave the base where it is and train the vine to grow into the sun. You might also find out what type of soil a wisteria prefers and test the soil it's growing in to see if the nutriance balance has changed to something that wisteria isn't happy with in the last 6 years. I know that has happened in my parents garden and they actually lost some plants before they realized what had happened. They're garden is edged with massive limestone rocks and enough lime leached into the soil to completely change it. They're having to add garden sulfar to fix the problem.

My firend and i both have Wisteria Chinese it seems to bloom on old growth not new that maybe why it hasn't bloomed for you. Its manageable but it takes some effort.

Thank you, Kara. I've never had the soil tested here.

Gaffanon, it bloomed six years ago when we first moved in here. The following two or three years it didn't bloom, so I began cutting it back. I'll try leaving it for a year and see what happens with me training it into the sunlight.

Hey Bridget
When I had this problem with mine, which is the rampant, aggressive kind, someone or some book suggested shovel pruning. They said the decline in blooming has something to do with the roots, and wisteria will benefit from trimming the extensive root system out about a foot from the base.

I can't remember if I stayed in that house long enough to see the results the following spring. I had 6 of them I got little roots of from Michigan Bulb Co (what was I thinking?) and they just swamped the whole front porch, even with almost daily trimming and training.

And all I wanted were those yummy clusters of flowers like in the picture of the catalog!

Susie

Wth is root pruning? LOL!