Yes, mailbox entirely too small for a wisteria, no matter how heavily you prune.

You cannot force a 10m (minimum) plant to occupy a 2m space. At the very least, relocate the wisteria this autumn (am in total agreement with both Woody and laceyvail.

life in the garden is not a disney movie.. boy that has new meanings these days.. lol ... the garden is not cartoon perfect in the heat of summer...

anyway... leaf damage in july and august.. is usual.. normal.. and increased by such things as drought ... hail.. wind.. heat.. etc...

all we try to do it limp along the the fall... when cool nights.. will encourage root growth.. to store energy.. for next year ..

unless you see an actual.. bug .. we dont spray.. willy nilly for such..

and if the integrity of the leaf was broken by hail.. we really dont wonder what all the little scratched and bruises are all about.. we know.. it was hail.. and we dont spray for hail...

and the hail damage will not 'heal'.. and wont disappear.. until the leaves fall off in later fall ...

besides.. the leaves are still green.. and still doing their job.. processing light into energy ... to use and later store for next year...

bottom line.. your plant is fine.. though a bit ugly.. and just water it properly..

and in fall.. move it... it has way to much potential... for a mailbox... to process primulas answer for you. this thing grows 30 feet per year.. and you arent going to prune it down to 4 feet... and even if you do.. you will probably never get it to flower ..

find somewhere better for that.. and if you insist.. plant a clematis on the mailbox...and pray your mailman never gets stung because you want to grow flowers on the mailbox...

ken

I would never intentionally plant any Asian variety of wisteria, 50 yrs ago my grandmother's sister planted a wisteria tree that grew and bloomed for many years. When I moved to the family farm 22 yrs ago the wisteria tree was dead, but it had sent live underground shoots everywhere - for 20 feet in every direction. I had the area graded and had a tractor rake out as many of the wisteria roots as it could. There were several very large piles of wisteria underground runners that were pulled out of the surrounding soil. I have since been trying to eradicate the wisteria that has grown from the missed underground roots that have grown up through my more desirable shrubs that I want to preserve - I have been able to control it, but will probably never get rid of it entirely.

Even our native wisteria, Wisteria frutescens which is a more restrained climber is too large to plant on a mailbox!

Watch this vid - it probably won't change your mind about growing a wisteria vine, but as they say "The more you know - - - "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_NY0LSOmAU

Definitely wouldn't grow an Asian variety. This is an American variety ("Amethyst Falls"). It's classified as non-invasive and one of the least aggressive growing wisterias. I researched it pretty heavily before purchasing. It's relatively easy to kept pruned and can even be grown in a container, so it's much more tame.

And I didn't quite describe it correctly. It's growing behind a very substantial mailbox concreted into the ground with an arched trellis placed over top of the mailbox, so there's more than just the mailbox. It's in a very large garden bed about 20 x 20 feet wide, so it definitely has some space to trail. But I am definitely nervous now that this still isn't going to be enough.

@woodyoak I honestly didn't notice the peeling bark so I'm glad you mentioned that. I'll have to look into that issue as well. Thank you for your help.

Ah, clearer to me now. My D-i-L grows this because, as you say, it has indeed been advertised as good for container growing. A couple of things - D-i-L had a 'mare of a job keeping it wet enough and had to install an irrigation system and the other thing, which is also affecting yours, is the tendency to become chlorotic because of nutrient lock-up. This can be fixed with a biannual treatment of sequestered iron. A foliage spray works faster than a root drench but while new leaves will be green, it won't change the current yellowing growth. Chlorosis does also leave plants a bit susceptible to fungal issues.

Wisteria frutescens - I had ni idea it was a native US variety so hey, every day is a school day. Good luck with training and pruning. I think a regular prune, twice a year, will go a long way to maintaining a shapely plant.

I think a lot of the performance of various types of wisterias depends on the pruning regime! Wisterias are a fairly common - and beautiful - bonsai tree! I couldn’t stand to look at ours if we only pruned them twice a year! When they are in vigorous growth, we prune them frequently - weekly or sometimes daily! It’s easy with the use of long-arm pruners when growing them as trees so we try to keep them as relatively small (8-10’) trees.

The Chinese one pretty much stopped sending out root suckers after 5 years (it is now over 20 years old) but the Japanese one still produces lots of root suckers - it is about 10 years younger… We remove root suckers as much as possible by tearing them off the roots, trying to remove as much budwood as we can. If it is too hard to get to the roots, we cut them off as low to the ground as possible.

The Chinese wisreria will produce a secondary summer bloom if it is pruned regularly. The Japanese one has not done that although I gather some can. When the leaves fall in autumn, we make sure all seed pods are removed, and we remove any we see in the growing period. While Japanese wisterias have a reputation for setting more seeds (the flower racemes are longer…), most of the seeds we get are on the Chinese one.

On the whole, I find the Japanese one a more vigorous grower and less attractive I would not plant it if I was doing it again! I worry that whoever owns this property after us will not do the necessary pruning to control them, even though we plan to leave pruning instructions for them…

The American wisterias have a reputation for ’iffy’ scents. I’ve seen Amethyst Fall’s scent described as ’cat pee’ and the Australian author of one of the wisteria reference books I have said he ’politely’ described the scent of the American ones as ’musty’. There are some newer ones where the scent is supposed to be better. ‘Blue Moon’ is supposed to be OK….

I suspect that the American types can be as vigorous growers as the others and that their ’native’ status might result in people being too lax about pruning them…! So be tough with it - I suspect it will do better that way!

Hahaha oh the joy of a “cat pee” plant. I’m dying 😂 That’s hilarious. I definitely didn’t know that, I’ll keep my fingers crossed it’s not too awfully bad. I’m now thankful it’s far away from the house.

Thank you for all your helpful feedback. I’m a stay at home mom at present so I spend a lot of time outside and am on top of the pruning, so I’ll be very dedicated to keeping it under control. I solemnly swear to make my wisteria behave!! 😌

Do consider dealing with the chlorosis. It is a simple fix to add a solution of chelated iron (sequestrene), readily available from garden stores. The newer leaves will be stronger and healthier. Best of luck with the pruning regime too.