Japanese wisterias are at their best when trained to climb large, sturdy structures such as porch roofs, arbors or walls. A dead tree makes a good support, but never allow them to grow on a live tree. The vine will eventually strangle it. These vines are best suited to large structures their abundant growth dwarfs small ones. Train horizontal branches along a wrought iron fence or pergola, so their pendant flower clusters are displayed in rows. Pruned and trained to a single stem, wisteria vines can be turned into weeping trees. These make elegant, showy specimens in large lawns. Unsupported, wisteria can be used as ground cover. It is useful to obscure unattractive areas of the property or to cover hillsides to difficult to plant.
Container Gardening: As a tree, wisteria can also be grown in a large container (2 feet wide by 2 feet deep) to lend an elegant touch to small gardens. The smaller, finer textured Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) is somewhat more appropriate for container growing than the Japanese type.
