Plants

Update from Wisteria Watch

Sunil61.3K views

In the UK there’s a series of “watch” programs on TV that attempt to keep us in tune with the seasons:

  • AutumnWatch
  • WinterWatch
  • Wildlife Watch

Oddly, summer doesn’t get its own program for some reason. This is all fine until they begin showing out-of-season repeats, at which point it all gets terribly confusing.

Personally, I have my own “Watch” program and that’s: “WisteriaWatch”! The latest update from this is that the Wisteria has reached another level of maturity; it is now putting on a tiny second flowering in late summer.

This is the first year it has flowered twice and it feels like another milestone has passed. There aren’t many flowers, but you might just be able to make out odd dots of purple among the mass of green.

There hasn’t been much lateral progress from leading runners this year, but you’ll notice one particularly enterprising runner has reached the roofline and is now currently wondering whether to head off along the tiles. Another has emerged from close to the graft at the base of the plant and now winds underneath the kitchen window and then goes straight up between the window and the door. As a bonus, the Banksiae Lutea rose planted by the kitchen door is also starting to take off and is producing long, thick canes befitting of a climbing rose.

At this rate, the next update for WisteriaWatch might not come with a picture due to the kitchen door having been barricaded shut by the wall of green creeping over the rear of the house.

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6 comments

Casa Mariposa 11/08/2013 - 4:55 am
When it has finally taken over the entire wall, a national holiday should be called. It will be beautiful!
Sunil Patel 12/08/2013 - 6:23 pm
Hi Tammy, I certainly hope so. By the time it covers the various house walls and develops the classic thick, twisting, gnarled trunk, it will join the ranks of those wisterias that people stop to take pictures of - that's kind of what I'm aiming for. It will take some time though.
Alistair 12/08/2013 - 5:47 pm
Well, there should be a Summer watch. Your Wisteria is clearly happy, take care it doesn't go creeping under your roof tiles.
Sunil 12/08/2013 - 6:25 pm
Hi Alistair, I'll have to watch it as it's reached the roof tiles (again, usually it gets blown off) so I'm going to have to get the long ladder out (and a few pairs of spare pants as I really dislike going up the long ladder).
Emily @ gardening through a lens 13/08/2013 - 11:29 pm
My version is a Witch Hazel watch in winter. I creep outside, rain or snow or locusts, and check for those tiny flowers that reward my fidelity to an otherwise boring tree/shrub. Ah, but Wisteria is romantic and pleasantly shows itself in summer! Well worth sitting in a deck chair with a cool drink while on watch. Carry on!
Sunil 14/08/2013 - 8:43 pm
Hello Emily, I don't have witch hazel, but I love seeing it in Winter Gardens, they're not easy to grow either so well done on yours. The wisteria is an exercise in patience, but I know that it just keeps getting bigger and better each year.
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