Monday 23 June 2014

Wisteria- on mass or wild and free?

Wisteria grown along a wall in a fairly standard fashion, more blooms came out after this, I was a bit prompt with the photo

Grown up the front a house; contrasts nicely against the white.  Unfortunately for these house owners they only live a couple of doors down from the bottom house so this one pales into insignificance in comparison!
Im fully aware that its not Wisteria time.  However I took loads of photos when it was out in late April and through a combination of working a 40 hour week, commuting ten hours, seeing the boyfriend and trying to coax cucumbers to not wilt plus trying to find time to sleep I just haven’t got round to sharing them yet.  So here we are.  I don’t personally have a Wisteria, but I would love one.  I tried to convince the mother a couple of years ago but I was flatly refused because apparently if you plant them by a house wall which is what I would like to do, they merrily ruin your foundations.

I think nothing looks more English than a Wisteria spread over the front of an old house, which is ironic considering that they are Chinese and Japanese in origin I believe.  Normally this is my favourite way of displaying them, if you will, as shown by a lovely house in a nearby village to me that was absolutely smothered in it.  I vaguely think it makes it look like a purple version of Sully from Monsters Inc.  I really like it on mass like that, not subtle but totally going for it.  If your going to grow something over your house it should definitely turn the whole outside purple.

But on my way home from work I stumbled across a completely different way of letting it grow.  Left I imagine to its’ own devices another Wisteria had clambered its way high above a road through a tree and although looking a bit wild and unkempt I quite liked it.  You don’t get that mass of colour the same but it has a slightly eerie appearance that I quite like, like an abandoned garden of an empty stately manor.  What a romantic image.

The thing I really love is the way the ‘large pendulous racemes’ or ‘flowers’ to you and I (I found a fancy horticultural book in the loft) is the way the colour gradates from white to dark mauve at the bottom.  Somehow the larger white petals at the top wierdly makes them look like they are painted rather than being real flowers.  Like in this photo, don’t the flowers look like they have been painted on impressionist style?  So there we have it, a little late Spring flash back.

Wisteria growing up through a tree

This Wisteria has really gone for it travelling widely about this tree, its probably been doing it for decades.  Kind of nice I think





One seriously purple fluffy-looking house.  And yet the house looks fairly stable- mother take note!
Don't the white top petals make the flowers look hand painted rather than real?!

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