You're probably right, Stillann; even here in Tuscany it would probably be better to have them in a more protected spot. That is why I was thinking of this idea of sort of creating a "wall" of cloth (maybe with a bamboo screen or some such?) to protect mine. I love wisteria so, but have no walls on which to grow it.

In some zone 6 areas in the flat Great Plains of the US, I've seen wisteria growing as mound shaped shrubs, pruned down to about three feet tall...and as wide. Really charming in bloom. (and easy to make a cylindrical cover to hold heat in.

I've also seen (yes, I love to see wisteria in bloom) wisteria covering stumps of trees in front yards, where the trees were removed about five feet from the grass. I expect they get some heat from the rotting hardwood trunks as well.

I wonder if Viburnum are any hardier?

Viburnum seem to have no problems, though I don't have any of these plants myself.

It's this freaky weather that's the problem. Weather starts warming up too soon and too much,so buds form ,and then-zap-a completely out-of-season drop in the temperature,and your flowers are ruined. We had no cherries last year, for example, because of the weather...

Anyway, I did some looking on-line,found a Houzz thread about using Christmas lights to protect plants,but it was 10 years old,and the people on it insisted that LED lights wouldn't work since they don't heat up like the old-fashioned ones did. I think I may try using LEDs anyway, since the old-style ones are no longer available, and in any case there's no electricity out there so I need battery-operated. I could put the lights on the plant, and then wrap it up in the fabric,see if it helps. After all, it's not exactly a lack of hardiness that's the issue here. What's more, LEDs DO produce some heat-I know because I had a string of them on my stair railing, with a tinsel garland as a decoration for Christmas,and when I took them down I could see that the plastic tinsel had melted a bit where it was touched by a light.

sounds like you are playing the zone pushing game.. and not quite winning to the point of bloom ...

when i played that game ... many things survived ... and grew a lot of green leaves.. but never produced the ultimate display i dreamed of ... bad deep cold winter.. late spring frost freeze .. early fall frost freeze.. etc ....

and it irritated me no end ... when i noticed peeps who dont even garden around the area... succeed wildly ... lol ...

perhaps its time to cut bait.. and be done with this experiment ... though i suspect.. not unlike myself.. you will give it one more year.. for the next decade .. because if anyone is going to beat ma nature.. it was going to be me ... yeah.. well ... that didnt really work out 99% of the time ... lol..

ken

It is my impression, like Ann’s, that walls offer quite a bit of protection. I have noticed that wisterias grown against walls or houses seem to put on a better show in this area after we are hit by crazy spring freezes. (Although I shudder when I see wisterias right next to houses because they grow a mile a minute and can rip off siding and shingles in the blink of an eye.) I’ve covered potted, tender bloomers on windy balconies with some success, and I suspect that protecting wisteria from drying cold winds would be at least somewhat helpful even without a heat source. I am guessing that wisterias on pergolas and open structures suffer a bit of the ”bridge effect” with icy winds all around, including underneath. I’m really curious to know how all this plays out for you. As a zone pusher myself, I am cheering you on. Wisteria is surely one of the most ethereal and deliciously fragrant plants on the planet! Absolutely worth some creative maneuvers. “Take care on your ladder!“ says the acrophobe. 🤞🤞🤞 Carol

There is no way growing Wisteria in Tuscany is ’zone pushing’. It’s totally hardy there. The issue is frosting of the flower buds alone. Horticultural fleece would probably work. Keep an eye on the weather forecast to anticipate frosts.

I am straying a bit from topic, but I think zone identity is relevant to what you are experiencing, Bart. Floral, I 100% agree that Tuscany should be a perfect zone for wisteria. But with climate change…. Bart’s spring is likely not a “Tuscany zone” spring anymore. Since forever, I have thought of gardening in terms of fairly steady climates with microclimates knocking an area up or down a notch. Zone temps and weather were more consistent and more predictible. The weirdness of climate change has rewired my thinking about “typical” weather, zones and pushing zones. In my area, the months no longer follow my zone’s long time weather patterns. I have started tracking which zone I am gardening in during different months of the year. Last year, our February looked more like a location in the US which gets slammed by Blue Northerns. I have lots of TX memories of plants budding up only to get hit with frigid windy temps and ice before another thaw. Now my temperate rainforest Portland, OR, garden has joined this merry-go-round. I am waiting and watching to see if late winter will continue to throw my area into some crazy mish mash usually identified with another US garden zone. You’re right that ”zone pushing” is not exactly what is happening. I am not sure what to call the new normal where sprouting and flowering plants get weather-ambushed every year in ways that rarely happened in the past. Honestly, I don’t even know what my zone is anymore. It used to be 8b, but I have noticed that some garden sites have bumped me to 9. Our summers are hotter and longer, more 9 than 8, but our winters are more 7. (Insert ”hmmm face” emoji.) Bart, I think your wisteria is a bit of a climate change canary in the coal mine. In my area, the buds on usually indestructible daphnes and early rhododrenrons freeze dried and rotted last year like a million little climate change alerts. Carol

Thank you all for answering,and keeping my thread going. Discussion of the problem helps me to think of solutions.

Carol, FAR from "straying a bit from topic", you have very precisely identified the problem! As Floral so correctly points out, this is certainly NOT a question of "zone pushing" or anything of the sort.Wisteria-covered pergolas are practically a stereotypical feature of Tuscan gardening. But climate change has messed everything up here.

I've never been a big fan of all that "zone" stuff; it has a VERY limited value, IMO,and becomes more and more meaningless to me. The summers here are so hot and long that I'd think we'd count as a zone 11 or something as far as they go."I have lots of TX memories of plants budding up only to get hit with frigid windy temps and ice before another thaw." THAT is what I'm talking about, precisely.