Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Saturday, May 19. 2007

Wisteria

A re-post from May, 2006

Japanese Wisteria blooms in May in New England. 

It's a sentimental Victorian plant that is perfect for shading pergolas, arbors and porches.

Once established, it grows like a weed, up to 10' per summer. It takes work to keep it under control.

Robins love to nest in their tangles: I have a pair of robins nesting in mine right now, so I cannot trim it until the babies leave the nest.

Like many exotic, introduced plants, it can be very invasive and aggressive: eliminating wild stands of wisteria is a tough job.

I grow sweet-smelling Autumn Clematis up my Wisteria vines, so the vine serves double duty. Autumn Clematis is another one of those strong vines that grow like crazy, with amazing September perfume.

Posted by Bird Dog in Natural History and Conservation, Our Essays at 07:16 | Comments (10) | Trackbacks (0)

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Gorgeous! What do you think of Amethyst Falls? I was thinking of that for training up my deck.
#1 retriever on 2006-05-21 07:38 (Reply)
dont know the hybrids - mine are from Wayside
#2 bird dog on 2006-05-21 09:01 (Reply)
Did the robins return this year?
#3 Sissy Willis (Link) on 2007-05-19 08:46 (Reply)
(odd notes)

"The record for the fastest growth of an individual goes to a tropical species of bamboo that reportedly reaches 100 feet (30 m) in three months. [Note: This is an unsubstantiated report. It might be only 50 feet (15 m) in three months.] Growth increments of three feet (0.9 m) a day have been recorded--an astonishing 0.0002 miles per hour.

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0601.htm

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0601c.htm#growing

********

I can hardly imagine such a tremendous ongoing botanical explosion, silently, just beneath the surface of the soil--
#4 buddy larsen on 2007-05-19 11:36 (Reply)
Clematis. The upper-class version of Kudzo. I planted some to fill cover one side of my trellis - the other side is a climbing rose, and I cuss it. Plants are sensitive and I talk nicely to my indoor plants except for the weeping figs because if you use the wrong tone with them, they dump their leaves. I hum hymns when I water them. Low and sweet Gospel hymns. But the clematis just grow in my face no matter how I swear at them. I say 'them' because they sneak around underground and make babies that come up across the paved driveway. They even like Weed-B-Gone-U-Sunbitch.

Never plant bamboo. It travels as well, and pretty soon you will start wearing a loin cloth and using a blow-dart gun on your squirrels.
.
#5 Phoenix on 2007-05-19 12:44 (Reply)
doing the Cargo Cult dance for some herbicide
#6 buddy larsen on 2007-05-19 12:57 (Reply)
Ahh--thank you. I thought that Clematis looked familiar! Took 4 years to get flowers on my peony. I have just ignored it for the last 2--no fertilizer, no bug spray, no nice words--just stubbornly refused to acknowledge its existence. As I write this there are 12 buds, six will be gorgeous (I think). WIth regard to wisteria. We have a white one. It is about 5 years old and this year the leaves are very sparse and have a yellow tinge, not many flowers--any ideas?
#7 apple pie on 2007-05-19 15:07 (Reply)
pH levels? They're oft overlooked.
#8 buddy larsen on 2007-05-19 17:19 (Reply)
PH level is why one limes the yard, right? It works better than fertilizer on my grass.

The wisteria might have mites. I have a row of Lygustrum and two bushes turned puny and the leaves yellowed. I used that pesticide that you hook to your hose and that fixed it. Then I used Miracle-Gro and all is well. I used a ton of Miracle-Gro on a zinnia patch just to see what it would do. I had zinnias taller than me. I had a zinnia nightmare one night and now I follow the directions on the box.
.
#9 Phoenix on 2007-05-19 21:01 (Reply)
Thanks folks. I will try both the pesticide, and checking the PH.
#10 apple pie on 2007-05-19 21:37 (Reply)

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