American Wisteria
Wisteria frutescens
A native wisteria with hanging clusters of fragrant lavender-blue flowers in late spring, as lovely as the Asian kinds but far less aggressive and less damaging to buildings, and deer leave it alone. It needs sturdy support, full sun and regular pruning to flower well. Its seeds are poisonous to pets.
- Mature size
- 28 × 6 ft
- 8.5 × 1.8 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 5a–9b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade
- Water
- Medium to moist
- Blooms
- Apr–May
American Wisteria at its mature size
A mature American Wisteria grows 15 to 40 feet tall and 4 to 8 feet wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension.
Through the year
What American Wisteria looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Dormant · Nov–Apr
Bare twisting woody vine.
In flower · May
Short dense drooping clusters of lilac-purple flowers among young leaves.
In leaf · Jun–Oct
Shiny deep green pinnate leaves on the support.
Photos
Growing American Wisteria
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, and the Midwest.
- Growth rate
- Fast
- Good for
- Climber, deer resistant, pollinators, fragrant, and fast growing
- Leaves
- Drops its leaves in winter
- Native to
- Eastern United States
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For American Wisteria, that’s about 6 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See American Wisteria in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.