Wisteria Hysteria

Daisy – Hi Spud. Do you know about wisteria? I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about but apparently Wisteria is some kind of flower that is in full bloom in May and lots of people have it growing up the outside of their houses, including a couple of the properties Wilson Hill are currently marketing as you can see from two of these photos. Now that I have seen it, I can see that it is very pretty.

Spud – I have seen it Daisy as I have some growing up the outside of the house I live in. You are right, it is very pretty and it smells nice, it is the quintessential climber. We have lots of bees buzzing around collecting pollen from it at this time of year. Russell was just saying the other day that Wilson Hill have a client with some beautiful wisteria on their house and although they are not selling just yet, Wilson Hill are organising to get some photographs of the house whilst the wisteria is out so that they have them ready for when the clients want to start marketing their property. It is always a good idea to plan ahead and if there is a time when the garden is looking particularly special, it is well worth getting some professional photographs taken – as those boy scouts say ‘be prepared’!

Daisy – But Spud did you know that there is Chinese wisteria and Japanese wisteria and that they each twine in a different direction? They both still have the pretty purple flowers (sometimes they can be white) that hang down but the Japanese one has slightly bigger flowers which appear at the same time as the foliage (that’s leaves to you and me) and the Chinese version has smaller flowers but they come out before the leaves. Sometimes you can also get a second flowering later in the summer. There are not so many flowers the second time around so it is a bit less spectacular but never the less it contributes some lovely colour to the garden.

Spud – I didn’t know that Daisy – very interesting and judging from your description I think the one on our house must be the Japanese version but I must check which way it twines when I get home!

Daisy – Also wisteria is from the same genus as the pea family

Spud – well I like peas. Not as much as I like cheese but they are still nice.

Daisy – And another interesting thing I found out about wisteria is that the largest wisteria in Japan covers approximately 1,990 square meters. That is about half an acre – just imagine!

Spud – Even Tiki likes the wisteria