1) Yes, although Japanese wisteria tends to have a stronger, more pervasive scent.

2) Japanese wisteria vines clockwise; Chinese wisteria vines counterclockwise.

3) Yes, grafting IS important if you are growing one of the Asian species. These vines need to achieve a certain maturity before they bloom and that can take a significant amount of time - anywhere from 5-20 years. Grafting eliminates the delay. The native species are much more likely to bloom at an earlier age but that too can take some time to achieve.

4) Yes, full sun is an ideal location for this vine both for the health of the vine itself as well as for the flower production. But the vine will tolerate part shade just fine also but may not bloom as heavily.

Thank you garden gal - that is all very helpful. Two follow up questions:

1) When you say the Japanese wisteria vines clockwise, and the Chinese counter-clockwise, does that measure when you are looking down at the growth, or looking up from the ground?

2) Since what I believe I have is one of the asian varietals, what root stock do I graft it to, and where do I find it? Or should I toss these and purchase an stablished grafted tree somewhere? (And if so, where?)

David

To add to gg48's comments....

1. The scent is strongest on mine in the morning and in the evening, but neither 'broadcast' the scent very strongly - i.e. standing close to it gives the best effect! The native wisterias have a reputation of having little scent or what is politely described as 'musk' :-) 'Blue Moon' is supposed to be the native one with the best scent.

2. the twining direction is easiest to sort out if clockwise is described as the stems twining from lower right to upper left while counterclockwise stems twine from lower left to upper right.

Japanese clockwise:

Chinese counterclockwise:

The native wisterias are supposed to twine counterclockwise as well.

From my perspective the main reason you'd want to know which type you likely have is because their slightly different flowering habits mean that the way they display best is slightly different.... The Chinese ones produce most of their flower show before the leaves fully emerge. So growing them somewhat 'shrubby' - i.e. encouraging flowering wood from top to bottom - makes for a great show. The Japanese ones, on the other hand, has vigorous foliage growth at the same time as the flowers are extending/opening. So the foliage can obscure the flowers! That is one of the reasons why they are the kind most recommended for pergolas - the top structure of the pergola would help hold back the foliage and allow for the flowers to dangle free beneath. If you look on the 'mystery' wisteria thread, you can see a picture I posted of our relatively short Japanese wisteria 'tree' before and after we pruned off some of the foliage so the flowers display better. There is also a picture there with both types in the same picture so you can see how we prune them/grow them differently based on how the flowers display.

I gather the native wisterias also produce their flowers after the foliage is well along. I suspect they might also need to have some foliage pruned off to give the best flower display, especially as they are supposed to have relatively short flower racemes.

3. If you are buying a wisteria, you'd definitely want to buy a grafted one as that would give you a somewhat greater assurance that you are getting a plant that will flower in a reasonable time and be showier than is likely from a seed-grown plant. If you root a cutting yourself from a wisteria you know blooms and you like the color and scent, it should do fine - although I don't know how long it will take to mature enough to bloom for you.

4. Full sun is definitely needed.

Very helpful woodyoak, thank you!