Wisteria Lane

No matter what you think of the ladies of Wisteria Lane, everyone agrees that its namesake is a drop-dead gorgeous vine. I like to point out to my husband that the wisteria on screen is always blooming. He just mumbles something like, “oh, yeah”.

Immortalized on Tiffany lamps, few plants beyond the rose have been romanticized like the wisteria. The stylized blooms were depicted during the Art Nouveau period that featured writhing plant forms and curvilinear lines. With its burgeoning blossoms and sinuous seedpods I can see the reason for naming that lane.

Porches and pergolas dripping with the fragrant flowers evoke glamour and mystery. There is no better way to give a garden instant age, a sense of time.

Although it may take a few years for wisteria to bloom, the vigorous vines will rapidly climb any strong support for quick shade. Wisteria quickly forms thick multiple trunks although it can be trained to a single trunk for a standard tree form. The stems of this fast-growing deciduous vine can reach 25 feet, giving it a mature spread of 40-50 feet.

That might sound scary to some. However wisteria responds well to regular light pruning with more flowers. For those gardeners that feel a sense of accomplishment after a session with the pruning shears, this is the plant. Pruning can be done twice in summer and at other times for aesthetic shaping. Some find this easier during dormancy when vines are visible without foliage.

Chinese wisteria is the most commonly planted variety. There are some marked differences between it and the Japanese species. The Chinese variety blooms before leafing out, giving it an elegant almost sculptural quality. It always twines counter-clockwise, in case you’re identifying an existing vine. Lastly the grape-like racemes open all at once instead of gradually.

It is said that the heady fragrance of wisteria only falls, lending its perfume to those under it, instead of the window above it. Why? Well that’s just another mystery for Wisteria Lane.