Wisteria 01 [Wisteria floribunda?]
Sort of a two-trunk/mother-daughter thing

MARCH 1, 2024. The plant that just keeps on growing and growing. It’s a lot of fun. Looking at the photo from 2022, I’m not sure why I did it, but I drastically changed the potting angle last year when I repotted it into a large terra cotta bowl to let it grow wild. I do remember that I wanted to change it so that most of the flow went to the left, following the direction of the larger trunk. Whatever the reason, I was disappointed, because I didn’t get a whole lot of growth at all. To make matters worse, I then broke off one of the few longer shoots and stymied my hopes even more. In spite of all this, it’s full of buds again, even though some of them are unfortunately placed. Since I clearly need to update things a lot on this page, I’ll even put a photo of it in its sorry state of nakedness down below. Poor thing. I still have hope, though, so I’ll leave it to grow in this position for one more summer. Then I’ll try again.

September 18, 2022. For the last few years, this has been a very satisfying plant to have around. Consistent blooms in spring (so many I have to scratch some off), scattered smaller blossoms throughout the summer, nice growth all season long, etc. I keep the bowl in a large planter tray, just to keep it moist enough during blooming and growth times. And in the heat of the summer as well. It loves the full sun, and it gets is all day long on the east side of our yard. Right now it looks a little tired, if not like it’s at death’s door. ‘Tis the season. I’m still hoping to find a better pot for it, but even if I don’t, it has to be repotted. I might even do it this fall, since that’s one of the times recommended for doing that.

March 7, 2021. Well, it did bloom a couple of times during the summer of 2020. Not very pretty blooms, and certainly not very big. Color was good, though. I’ve got a couple of photos down below that show what it looks like now. Absolutely crowded with buds, so I’ll have a good display this time. The planting angle in the blue pot is worlds better than it was in the unglazed square thing, and though I don’t think the changing angle is bad, Kathy was right about one thing: it’s not right. I’ve put another photo of it tilted to a better angle, and I’ve also included a sketch of what it might look like in a few years. Now to find a deeper, lighter colored bowl pot for it. There has to be one somewhere.  UPDATE. I took this photo this morning (March 20, 2021) There’s a second one below made about an hour earlier, just as the sun hit it about pot level. Lucky shot. Fun contrast in color.

April 11, 2020. No blooms this year. I didn’t repot it, but it’s growing wild like there’s no tomorrow. I’ll just try to keep that up over the summer.

October 25, 2019. Oh my, what a year. After the blooms faded and it started a wild growth ride, I put it in a new pot. Somehow I don’t have a photo in the new pot, but maybe there’s one somewhere. [EDIT March 2021. Here’s a photo where you can at least see the pot and the planting angle.] It’s a cheap dark blue bowl that looks OK when there are no blossoms. We’ll see next spring if that holds true in flower. Anyway–it looked like we needed a few more largish trees in the May show, so I took it in there. Kathy said it needs a better sense of direction because the trunk starts off going one way, but the top heads in the opposite direction. I’m not that concerned. I just like the curves, and they make sure the flowers are well distributed.

This summer it grew very well, and when we got back from Ireland I cut it back quite a bit. With any luck at all I’ll have more blossoms next year, but I’m afraid that might not happen. Pruning was too late, and I didn’t use the heavy “Bloom booster” fertilizer this year. We’ll see. Meanwhile, I’ve thought about the pot, and I might look for a whitish one. The blue can be used for the sasanqua at the end of the porch that I’ve been eying for a bonsai pot. We’ll see about that as well when February gets here.

March 17, 2019. This one went to the Cherry Blossom Festival yesterday and was a big hit with the general public.

March 11, 2-19. Yay! Many blooms on this one this year. It’s open early, so that probably means it’s a Japanese Wisteria, although timing isn’t really reliable this year given the weather. The blossoms are opening at the top of each cluster and moving down to the tip bit by bit, so that’s another clue pointing to the Japanese type. Either way, it’s nice to know I haven’t really ruined it with the different potting stuff I’ve gone through. I do want to get a better pot for it (glazed, probably cream or really dark blue/navy) and fix the bad planting angle and position soon. I might try one of the “azalea” pots this year while I look for something else.

October 20, 2018. It seems I went from having this one in a too mushy mix to having it in a too dry mix. I took it to the ABS meeting in August mostly because it was blooming. I had no idea they would do that in late summer. Turns out they can bloom up to three times a year if handled correctly, according to John Walker. And I was chastised for keeping it so dry. So I brought it home and put the pot in a shallow pan of water. It has lots of bud at the base of leaves, so I’m hoping for a nice spring from it in 2019.

May 3, 2018. Growing like a weed. No surprise, right?

March 4, 2018. I was surprised to get this one out of the box and see that it had actually grown a sort of normal looking, spreading root system last year. Nice. I put it in the square semi-cascade that Jane and John picked up for me last year and buried the whacked up end from last year’s dig under the soil level. That helped the way that end of the tree looks, but it sort of ruined the angle; now it’s just a straight stick with a nice curving whip out of the top. I also removed a couple of short new shoots and wired one longish one. We’ll see how it does this year. I’ll put some super bloom booster on it this week to see what happens.

2017. I dug it up and put it in a small box, about 12″ square. It was almost as difficult to dig as it was before! Roots were chunky and ran deep before there was any spread. I ended up hacking away at it and making a total mess getting it out of the ground. No wonder its considered invasive; it digs in to stay. I used some old bonsai mix, with garden soil mixed in and stuck the box under the pink dogwood. Over the summer I wired a new shoot into a curve and let a couple of smaller one just be there.

I dug this one up in 2016 at Cook Hill, near where Frances and Wilse’s house used to be. There was a really amazing wisteria there, eating a huge oak across the road from their house. I loved it. Now that thing has taken over a great part of the whole space there, with roots spreading out, vines growing up new trees, and in that soil probably going on forever unless somebody stops it.

I thought I’d never find one of any size that had even a hint of a root within six or eight inches of the layer of loose soil and duff that covered the ground. I finally got a couple of “whips” that I planted out in the way back, where I hope they’ll survive. But I haven’t checked lately. I hope no one reads this, because I think wisteria is considered an invasive plant. I shouldn’t contribute to its spread around here. I planted the one chunk I got with a measurable trunk in the garden, at the end of one of the brick levels. I trimmed it back a couple of times when it started to be aggressive.

Photos