Desert Gardener: Growing a wisteria takes time and a lot of pruning.

You may think wisteria won’t grow in Yuma, but I have one that is 10 years old and is doing fine. Its clusters of flowers are not as full or bright in color as wisteria grown in colder climates, but it is still pretty. It is a vigorous plant that weighs down our wire fence during spring and summer when its vines are growing rapidly. This beautiful, flowering vine has lush, green foliage that covers a twenty-foot-long span of our fence with tendrils reaching farther each day as they twine around anything they touch. In spring, clusters of light-purple flowers hang from its branches. In winter, it goes dormant and is a tangle of dead-looking branches, which is the time to prune.

Pruning is the key to keeping this vigorous plant in check. If left unpruned, the branches will stretch farther a