Paul Humphreys rambles on....

Paul Humphreys rambles on....
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Tuesday January 10, 2006

The Pergola - pruned

perg

Well it is winter and time to prune the unruly mess of branches that both the grape and wysteria vines have become over the previous year. You are meant to prune wysteria twice a year and the grape at the end of January. However when I did the pruning last year at this time it was a mild winter and the pruning knocked off lots of the flower buds of the wysteria which were in an advanced state of development. So I did it earlier this year. If you look at the wysteria you can see where the flower buds will form. These can be seen as clusters of buds on short twigs. So you leave them alone - if you can. Any long vines I cut back to the main stem - but I keep some to climb over parts of the pergola where there is a gap to be filled or a vine that is weak or damaged. The grape is similar but I do replace the old branches when they get very old and cut them right back to the main stem. If you look carefully you will see that the vines are tied to wire and hooks by means of raffia which needs replacing every year. The trimmings of both vines go to the local refuse site to be ground up and composted. The whole job takes at least an afternoon and I find it very satisfying to do this job - it looks tidy until both vines start growing again.

( Jan 10 2006, 12:00:01 AM PST ) Permalink