Wisteria on the Pergola

The new Wisteria which now covers the house pergola is in its second summer. How much should I prune it? When will it flower? Will it grow into a monster and be another of my gardening disasters?

A Scary Plant

Wisteria is the type of scary plant which affects my gardening self esteem. How much should I train it? Clockwise, or anti-clockwise? Should I cut off the floppy tendrils which are appearing now towards the end of summer? Aargh!

The ridiculous thing is that I am an intelligent gardener with more than adequate research skills. I have books and magazines in which all the answers to all my Wisteria questions will undoubtedly be answered. So why do I stare at this ever expanding plant and feel so hopeless - and nervous?

Enough of this nonsense. My Fine Gardening magazine has an article about pruning Wisteria (twice a year, if I remember correctly). It should be immediately obvious if my Wisteria is Japanese or Chinese. I'm sure it will flower, given time. And just suppose it gets too big - well, there's always the chainsaw!