Botanical Name: Wisteria sinensis
Common Name: Wisteria

 

Use: Outdoors
Indigenous/Exotic : Exotic
Evergreen/Deciduous : Deciduous
Plant Type : Climber
Flower Colour : Lavender blue
Foliage Colour : Green
Best Season : Spring
Light : Sun
Hardiness : Hardy
Attributes : Fragrant flowers
Height (m) : 9 - 15
Spread (m) :
    
Notes : Cascading down like a spring waterfall, the flowers of this deciduous climber fall in long tresses of fragrant lavender blue. Grow it on walls or over pergolas and arches for an unforgettable early spring picture. If you train wisteria over a pergola covering a patio, it will give a shady canopy in the summer while allowing sunlight to stream in during winter. The lavender tones of Wisteria sinensis (Chinese wisteria) can be sustained into summer with banks of blue-toned hydrangeas and picked up in the flowers of lavender or blue rosemary.

 

There is also a cultivar, ‘Alba’, with white flowers. Less widely grown is the Japanese wisteria (W. floribunda), which has long, slender sprays of lilac flowers. There are also white, pink and double-flowered violet forms of this species.

 

Wisteria is frost hardy, and can be grown in many parts of South Africa, doing best in regions with cold winters and good summer rainfall, and also growing well in winter-rainfall regions. It can be grown in warmer, drier areas, but it is not suited to very hot, humid conditions or to the very dry, inland areas of South Africa.

 

Plant wisteria in a sunny, wind-protected position, making sure that you allow sufficient room for this very vigorous climber to grow. Keep wisteria well watered while it is in bloom, and water it in summer during dry weather. It should be pruned severely in winter, not only to contain its size, but to promote the growth of abundant flowers.