For sixteen years the wisteria on my verandah has done a great job as a living shade cloth — but it has never flowered. It was given to me in a pot, grown from a cutting of a white wisteria, so the giver assured me. I didn’t mind that it didn’t flower, given how lovely were the shape and shade of the leaves.
I bought a normal mauve flowering wisteria and planted it by the laundry.
So when the first leaf bud opened this Spring I rushed to take a photo — and then was stopped short by the odd bump to the right. A bud, a flower bud!! After thinking about it for sixteen years.
In a few days there were more, and as they opened I could see that the flowers were not white, but pale lilac. Very pretty, subtler than its more uniform mauve cousin. They both have a lick of yellow at their throats.
The other pea-shaped flower in those shades in the garden is the Roi de Carouby snow pea’s magenta and pink, now reaching above the netting and bearing many peas daily.
Me too, nose in the air – until I see the snake– but it’s probably smiling too!
Spring, it just makes me walk around with a silly grin on my face!