Concerned about a plant growing up the side of the property

Loopy28

The property is currently empty as the vendor moved up country in the summer with work. Therefore I have not been able to meet with them.

The EA seemed pretty clueless about the plant but to be honest I wouldn't trust them anyway!!

G_M

Wisteria is beautiful, and if controlled, is fine. However, it can be destructive:

* it absorbes a lot of ground moisture when it gets big. In an older property with shallow foundations, this can cause movement of the ground (shrinkage) and subsidence

* it can grow over the roof, and the weight, combined with the ground shrinkage, can cause further subsidence/cracking.

I speak from experience! On the plus side, in my case, cutting the wisteria right back, and re-pointing the property (ie filling the gaps/cracks in the mortar) resolved the problem which did not recur.

Loopy28

I would say the plant is about 6ft tall. Is it fairly easy to just remove do you think? The house is only 5 yrs old so someone must have planted it not that long ago.

Disabled_Rights_For_Me

Could it have been a wild seed?

jjlandlord

6ft is rather small for a Wisteria, which is a plant that grows very fast.

Should be easy to remove.

kinger101

Disabled_Rights_For_Me wrote: »

Could it have been a wild seed?

Wistaria is a non-native plant. It was imported from Asia. In that sense, it's not what a botanist would call wild. It may well have been propagated from seed though (in which case, it will take around 20 years to flower).

Plants bought from garden centres will be grafted onto a different rootstock though, and would have a graft/scion, like you'd find on fruit trees etc.

Doozergirl

You could sell it!

I love Wisteria. It just needs training on a trellis and you can cut it if it goes too far. It won't damage a nice new house at all. It's a selling point to many of us!

phoebe1989seb

G_M wrote: »

Wisteria is beautiful, and if controlled, is fine. However, it can be destructive:

* it absorbes a lot of ground moisture when it gets big. In an older property with shallow foundations, this can cause movement of the ground (shrinkage) and subsidence

* it can grow over the roof, and the weight, combined with the ground shrinkage, can cause further subsidence/cracking.

I speak from experience! On the plus side, in my case, cutting the wisteria right back, and re-pointing the property (ie filling the gaps/cracks in the mortar) resolved the problem which did not recur.

This ^

Our new (1850s) house has a giant wisteria with a trunk in excess of 30cm - quite possibly more, we only moved in on 16/12 and I've not measured it Our fencing contractor who also does landscape gardening says he's never seen such a large one (ooer mrs ) and as the house was empty for two years or more before we purchased it, the wisteria has gone wild, climbing over the balcony and roof.......

No intentions to remove it as it was one of the reasons we fell for the house, just need to give it a haircut TBH, we've no plans on selling ever and as the house is built into the side of a cliff it's probably going to fall down one day anyway......but not in my lifetime

Edited to add - Have been doing a bit of tidying in the new garden and have just measured the trunk of our wisteria........it's actually a whopping 60cm at the base before dividing into 45cm and 15cm branches.....yikes!

G_M

G_M wrote: »

Wisteria is beautiful, and if controlled, is fine. However, it can be destructive:

I would say the plant is about 6ft tall. Is it fairly easy to just remove do you think?

:rotfl::rotfl:

A pair of secateurs. Trim it back in a year or so when it gets established. It's a baby.

My warning (& pheobe's) relates to a plant climbing over the roof.......