Sunil You may know that Wisteria is one of my favourite plants. I cannot praise this particular plant enough; vigorous growth, hardy, disease- and pest-free (for the most part), fresh green summer foliage and best of all, a jaw-dropping annual flower show of heavily scented, cascading racemes that resemble a floral waterfall. Wisteria was one of the very first new plants that went into the previous garden about five years ago; here’s me in my slippers planting it all the way back then:
I was brand new to gardening then and so young and naïve. If I was able to go back in time and visit my younger self to impart sage advice it would be, “you’re going to need more galvanised wire and a longer ladder”. In subsequent years the wisteria really took off and went around the side of the house, over the kitchen window and cornered through to the lounge patio doors.
Then we moved house and had to leave it all behind. That was very sad and I thought of the wisteria flowering for the new owners of our old house this year and hoped they enjoyed the show as much as I previously did. They are lucky to have a five-year head-start on their wisteria, whereas I have to start again with mine. Such is the way of things.
Fast forward a few months after our recent house move and here I am, with a brand new wisteria, ready to be planted in the ground, just as soon as I get round to sorting out the border where it’s going to live. It has a prime position already reserved close to a corner of the house that acts as a sun trap. Just as with the other borders, there’s a lot of preparation needed before I can get it in the ground. I need to aerate the soil and mix in lots of compost and organic matter, basically re-invigorate the entire bed. Of course, I also need to get the vine eyes into the wall.
Say a big “hello and welcome” to Wisteria Floribunda – Multijuga, also known as Japanese Wisteria and sometimes with the name, “Macrobotrys”. Do a quick favour for me and perform an image search for this plant and drool helplessly at the results. Gaze longingly at all the images of this vine in full glory with countless long racemes of purple flowers dripping from the ends of each branch, covering walls, arches and pergolas. I defy anyone to not find it awe-inspiring.
I want to have something similar for the front of the house. I plan to train the wisteria up the walls and along the tops of the windows where each spring, the house turns purple with flowers and we look through a curtain of racemes each time we look out of the windows. Just as with the previous wisteria, I will be extending the wire runners as opposed to pruning, I should expect flowering to begin within a couple of years and for it to get better and better from then on.
There are several houses in the area with beautiful displays of wisteria, I plan on being counted in that group after decade or so. This is a long-term plant just like the previous wisteria; the difference this time is that I don’t plan on moving house for a very long while.
6 comments
Hi Sunil
I am with you all the way regarding Wisteria. Somehow or other I get the feeling your Wisteria will be wowing the neighbours much sooner than ten years from now.
Hi Alistair, funnily enough I was chatting to the neighbours a while back and he mentioned that his wife wants a wisteria on their house. If I manage to get mine planted and growing away not only will I get one up on the neighbours (bit of friendly competition), but I might also coerce them into planting one too, that might just have a knock-on effect along the street!
Good luck with the new wisteria. Like you I planted one when I was new to gardening. It was on a wooden trellis. When we left, the trellis had been eaten up by the vine which somehow was standing up on its own. I planted one here 2 years ago. It is on a shed which I hope will be sturdy enough to hold it!
Hello Alain, wooden trellis doesn’t stand a chance does it? If your vine does well, you might be trying to claim your shed back from the wisteria that’s overrun it a few years down the line!
I love wisteria. When I lived in the southern part of the US, it was considered an invasive pest but I still loved seeing it growing along the roadside. Yours will be gorgeous growing along your house!
Hi Tammy, I can see why it would be considered a pest given it is so rampant in the right conditions. I hope to keep mine constrained to the house but I might turn a blind eye if it decides to go wandering about the garden.