I was admiring my grandma's wisteria vines so, being the wonderful grandma that she is, she pulled out her pruners and cut off three vines of about forty feet each. How the heck do I transplant these into my yard so that they'll climb the wooden structure from which my swing hangs? Each vine has bunches of the li'l root-like things that grab and climb, but there's no strict "root" to the vines.
Do I bury some of those thin root-like things in the dirt around the posts? Should I cut short lengths and let it climb on its own or try to wrap and lead the existing vines up the structure?
(I'm obviously new at this 'cause I don't think the technical term is "root-like thing".) All thoughts and proper terminology is welcome and muchly appreciated!

-- roberta (rmartin@bxr.com), March 29, 2000

Answers

Cut the vines down to where they don't have a lot of length but do have some leaves on the vine...I'd say no longer than 4 feet and can be cut down to as short as 1 foot. The less plant up top to support, the faster the roots get going.

Put whatever looks like a root in the dirt, cover, and you can tie string on the vine to guide it where you want. It will probably take a few years for the wisteria to bloom. Anytime I've ever heard of someone moving one or planting a new one, it took some time to get established and blo

-- Renee (justme@justme.org), April 10, 2000.