People have trained them to a standard. You'll lose whatever blooms you are seeing now if it has to go by mid-June but just chop it down to a manageable "dwarf tree" height and then having been there that long, it should resprout. Also consider root-pruning it by going at it with a shovel about 1 - 2 ft out from the main trunk, making a circle around it by forcing the shovel down as deep as you can. That should shock it to slow it down some and have it do a more controlled growth with potential blooms in a few years once the new vines mature. You'd probably need to watch where it resprouts in order to remove excessive sprouting and deterimine the next steps of training it, which would require pruning and using some temporary supports that can be removed once the arm vines have hardened enough to stand on their own.

i had to dig up my sisters wisteria before she moved, and it was huge. everbody told me it would die, but it didn't. i cut it down to about 16 inches,i had to use a tree saw, then i dug the largest root ball i could get, transplanted it and prayed. i watered it all summer, and it put out a small amount of green. that was 3 years ago, it's huge again,all budded and ready to go this year!! good luck, donna

Thank you both for answering to my wisteria problem. I don't want to do either, to be honest! I love the way it's growing up the roof, which is very steep and I've pruned it around one of the bedroom windows which looks really cool........but, insurance companies can be butts, eh? The roots are so close to the house, even if I were able to train it into a "standard" tree form, it would be totally flat on one side, which might look kind of weird? Donnaz5....just how big of a root ball did you end up with? I have no idea what wisteria roots are like, so should I be looking for a root ball the size of a Weber BBQ or Hoboken, New Jersey? When you transplanted it, did it go into a bad wilt and if so, for how long? You say now, three years later, it's raring to go again, but what did it do for the other two years? Were there signs of life which kept you hopeful? Jenny........if I try to train this into tree form, is there a good book or website with really detailed directions on how to do this? I am not well versed in "pruning" and it sort of has me befuddled. I would so like to hear more from both of you as I have such a short time left to decide what to do. I just know I don't want to lose this beauty.........maybe because I started it from one tiny little seed, it's my baby! Again, thanks to you both so much. Hope to hear more! Greenlydia

There's a bunch of websites out there that describe training wisterias. Am including the below that include diagrams and/or pictures:

Royal Horticultural Society - Pruning and Training Wisteria

Ohio State University Fact Sheet on Wisteria

"should I be looking for a root ball the size of a Weber BBQ or Hoboken, New Jersey?"

That is hysterical. Good luck. Let us know how it goes!

Kristin

how can this possibly be?? i've never heard of anything like it. our insur co has never BEEN here, much less told us what we can and cannot grow on our house. why not call around to a few other co's and see what they say about this?
maybe you'd find others to replace your current co.
best, mindy
p.s. i don't think a standard that is flat where it is up against your house- would look strange or bad. any tree that one grows right next to one's house is going to be flat on one side,technically; i just don't think anyone would think twice about it. another thought is that if you whack the plant down to the ground (i also know someone who did this and the plant came back stronger and more floriferous than ever). the insurance co would never know it wasn't dead because it would take time for the new growth to show, and by that time, they would be long gone i would hope.

arbo return, I used to work for an insurance company (blush) and they have the right to "nonrenew" policies or deny coverage for an unbelievable number of things that don't seem to be their business but, well, it's their business. Actuarially (I hope I spelled that right, I don't mean 'actually', but like the science of odds as practised by actuaries) there was always a reason, and that reason is that the insurance companies hate to pay out. So if there have been claims that dealt with wisteria that an insurance company has had to pay out for, they'll probably instruct their inspectors to look for it specifically. I had another friend who worked as an inspector for a while, he had to go to people's houses and kind of look around to make sure their policy info was corect (things like was the wiring up to date, or had they made any improvements like new wood floors that weren't covered under their original policy) and some things if he saw them would make the company threaten the homeowners with nonrenewal unless they were changed. Trampolines, unfenced pools, and certain kinds of dogs were really bad, and would result in nonrenewal or higer rates for coverage. It stinks, but it is a business, and a highly profitable one. I hated it, and would never do it again, but unfortunately now see the insurance company's side of the story stometimes. I have heard about wisterias pulling down flimsy arbors, and also about a wisteria that pulled down a second story deck/balcony thing, so maybe someone tried to make an insurance claim about it. I hope you can save your plant, it sounds so beautiful and I'm so impressed you started it from seed!
Lexi

Been away from the forum for a while and am just now reading some of the responses. The insurance company guy said it sure was a mighty pretty "bush" but was a fire hazard. Like, what? It was going to spontaneously combust or something? Funny that he didn't say a damn thing about the half cord of wood we have stacked on the back (wooden) porch right up against the (wood) house. Apparently in his mind, logs aren't combustable? I wish we had been able to shop around for a different insurance company, but we've been with this company so long and have really great rates. Maybe that's a bogus excuse, who knows. Too late now anyway as we chopped the vine down last week-end. I cried. I left about 6' standing, so I still have options (I hope) as far as saving it goes. Oh, we also had a small amount of moss on the roof (I live in Washington State for crying out loud, of COURSE there's going to be moss on my roof.....I have moss on my body!)This was yet another thing that had to go according to our insurance ass.....I mean, agent. So we spent days scraping moss as well. Funny thing was, there was absolutely NO moss growing where the wisteria vine was! That side of the house where the vine grew looks so bare now, it just breaks my heart. I took as many cuttings as I could manage and will hope that I get some going from them.........I will plant wisteria vine like Johnny Appleseed. I think I'm going to have my husband build a pergola thing-a-ma-jiggy for me and transplant it to that. If the insurance guy has anything to say about that, they'll be looking for him AND Jimmy Hoffa!
Thanks to all of you for your advice. I will undoubtably be back with more questions when I transplant this now stubby little BUSH!
Gratefully,
Greenlydia

Greenlydia, usually when someone is asking about controlling wisteria, I point them to this local article by Plant Amnesty. Mine (many, many years old now) trained to a standard needs continuous attention, they really do not want to be a tree - although it can be done if you don't mind the maintenance.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wisteria