QUESTION: Our 5-year-old wisteria never blossom, although we have fertilized and pruned. We know it isn't the climate; there are neglected plants nearby that bloom every year. How do we get it to flower?

ANSWER: Wisteria are stubborn, and though improper care is often at fault, blame can also rest squarely on the plant. If you started with seedlings instead of grafted plants or ones grown from cuttings, there is a good chance the wretched things are still five years from flowering, assuming they decide to bloom (some seedlings never do).In fact, if yours are Chinese (Wisteria sinensis) or Japanese (W. floribunda) and began as seedlings, consider pulling them up and planting American instead. Unlike its Asian cousins, the native W. frutescens flowers later, often reblooms, and is a less aggressive plant.In any case, it is best to stop fertilizing. Wisteria put on several feet of nonblooming growth a year, and food just encourages more of the same.As you have noticed, a wisteria that wants to bloom will do so without help, but flowering will be more lavish if the plant is pruned heavily each spring. Once the danger of hard frost is past, count three or four leaf buds out from the older branches and cut the younger ones there. Be ruthless: You will be cutting off far more than you will be keeping.Most flower buds grow on thick little branches near the trunk and main stems. They are round compared with the leaf buds, which are longer, almost pointy. When in doubt, wait a month or so, until the flower buds look like tiny grape clusters.

QUESTION: I'm itching to start gardening, but I know it is unwise to rush the season. Are there rules about when to begin?

ANSWER: There are many rules but only a few universal ones, starting with wait until the soil is dry before walking on it. Your weight compresses damp soil, damaging the spongelike web essential to its health. Wait until a handful of earth crumbles when you drop it, even if that doesn't happen for months.And don't be hasty about pruning roses and clematis. Prolonged periods of cold, wet weather can lead to dieback, even after hard frost has delivered its last blow.There is still plenty you can do. Attend to the lawn, raking debris, reseeding thin patches and spreading slow-release organic fertilizers like composted manure and cottonseed meal. The grass won't use food until warm weather, so do not apply chemicals, which will only wash into the water system.Any dry day that is at least 40 degrees is good for spraying dormant oil, which will thwart many insect pests on fruit trees, flowering shrubs and some evergreens.

QUESTION: Asian ladybugs have started appearing on the upstairs windows. If I put them on my houseplants, will they eat all the aphids?

ANSWER: Probably not. Though lady beetles (they are not bugs) are famous as aphid-eaters, they are hungriest when juvenile. The adults on the windows have emerged from your walls with mating on their minds. They'll eat, but not that much.After mating come children, however, and if the ladies lay eggs on your plants you are home free, aphid-wise. It takes less than a week for the gray, soft-bodied larvae to hatch and start chowing down. Keep the plants and beetles in a small room for two or three weeks, or until you see several larvae. Provide moisture (a damp sponge will do) and leave lights off at night; beetles tend to fly to the flame.Address questions to Garden Q&A, The New York Times, 229 W. 43rd St., New York, N.Y., 10036, or by e-mail to gardening@nytimes.com. Those of general interest will be published. Unpublished questions cannot be answered individually.By N.Y. Times Service