Wisteria And Goldfinch

 

A Very Tangled Wisteria (Before)

On Monday the pruning of the wisteria in the gardens began. The first to be pruned were the two located on the terrace of the quad each taking a day to complete.

Last Year's Flowering Spur

Pruned twice a year, the summer prune that takes place in July-August is to shorten the long, whippy shoots and the winter prune in January to February is to remove the dead, control the size and shape and, most importantly, to create a wonderful flower display. Using sharpened secateurs the current season's growth is cut back to encourage the development of new flowering spurs and the existing flowering spurs, that created last year's wonderful display, are cut back to two to four buds for this year's floral display in May. 

Flowering Spur

Pruned (After)

As the wisteria was pruned a number of birds nests were found having become visible now that the foliage has fallen. These nests were left behind by Goldfinch, the wisteria seems to be their nest site of choice, and are built with moss, grass and lichen, lined with wool and plant down. For a previous encounter with the Goldfinch in the wisteria see the blog entry for the 30th May 2014 'A Brief Encounter With Three Young Goldfinch'.

Goldfinch Nest

Goldfinch On the Teasels (8h January 2016

Having spent the first two days of this week working on the terrace wisteria the next one to be pruned was at the bottom of the quad along the railings. Completed today three wisteria have been pruned in four days leaving a further five to be pruned next week.