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OtherGarden
buckleup2000

Wysteria - a blessing or a curse?

Luke Buckle
6 years ago

I own a wysteria that hangs gloriously over my back patio.


The tangle of decades -old branches frames the backyard beyond and from its winding arms comes bright green leaves that budded just a few weeks ago.


Then, just two weeks later, after what felt like one week of joy, it leaves me with this...


So, all year you wait for the flowers and then - thanks in part to a windy September - they are all but gone in a matter of days. Now, the countless mauve flowers are disintegrating and being walked into the house. They have filled my council bin and blown across the yard.


I am honestly not sure if it is worth keeping.


What do you think - are wysterias worth the pain?

Featured Answer
  • Julie Herbert
    6 years ago
    oh Luke, don't cut it down, I sympathize with you as to the amount of blossom you need to clean up, we have ornamental pears and it looks like I have had a dozen weddings out the front but it's a small price to pay for how glorious they look through out the year, check out Peter Valders book on Wisteria , it may change your mind how magnificent and treasured they are, I have purchased a ryobi blower and big garden bags from bunnings and the green bin is overflowing at this time of year, just shovel in to bags till you can dispose of it, your Wisteria must be magnificent to have that many flowers.

    • Comments (7)

    • Luke Buckle
      Original Author
      6 years ago

      "it looks like I have had a dozen weddings out the front" - hahah great description!


    • Julie Herbert
      6 years ago
      It's true Luke, all I need is someone standing out the front dressed in white and it will definitely make the cover of a wedding magazine, confetti provided. haha
      would love to see a photo of your wisteria, must be fab.
      Luke Buckle thanked Julie Herbert
    • PRO
      Ivy & Bloom
      6 years ago

      They're a blessing and a curse at the same time! Providing you are really strict with keeping them trimmed and under control, I feel they're worth the work. And that fragrance, wow!!

      Luke Buckle thanked Ivy & Bloom
    • Casey La Cass
      6 years ago

      We've just sold our house, that I'd planted a wisteria patch in ten years ago. I loved that wisteria - I'd loved the second week of October every week for several years - it was Wisteria Week! It was always followed by Clean-Up-After-Wisteria-Week Thirty Minutes - it didn't take long, and it was so worth it. Over summer it was a beautifully cool covered area and over winter the light came in.
      We timed the first viewing for the house sale with wisteria week and had three offers in a day!
      Keep the wisteria. Savage it, tame it, and make it your own, and you'll always love Wisteria Week.

    • E L
      6 years ago
      It's a NO from me.
      Loved the fragrance, loved the flowers.
      Hated the constant tubers popping up everywhere, hated being scratched on the arms by the long wondering tendrils.
      I felt like I was forever chopping at it, trying to tame the thing... But it was winning hands down.
      I don't miss it.
    • goshdarnit
      4 years ago

      old post, I know - but I have the opposite problem - I need more wisteria!

      Our stoopid council, in conjunction with the developers have planted ornamental pears as street trees in our street.

      You know the ones whose flowers stink of day old tuna tins?

      The ones who give almost no shade?

      The ones who are notorious for splitting because the branches tend to start at the same place around the trunk?

      The ones infamous for causing roof and car damage in extreme weather events?

      YEAH - those ones.

      So I decided that when they get to the size I like, I'm sending a Japanese wisteria in to each of them to strangle them, and stop them from splitting at least. I hope the dreadful pear things die quickly, lol. If the whole street has to smell of tuna, at least we didn't contribute!

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