Chinese wisteria and hardy hibiscus
The front garden is definitely moving into its late summer phase...! The Chinese wisteria did a nice secondary summer bloom in early July as it switched from spring bloom to later season. But it continues to do secondary bloom as long as the whippy new growth is kept cut back - about 10 days later flowers appear near the site of pruning... We keep the Japanese wisteria's new growth cut back too but it never has done the second bloom for us :-(
Chinese wisteria east side July 3 2022:
Chinese wisteria summer bloom west side July 27 2022:
The pink hardy hibiscuses in the front bed started blooming two days ago. The red ones haven't started blooming yet:
(The neighbour across the street is an avid gardener too so their garden makes a nice backdrop!)
Comments (15)
FrozeBudd_z3/4
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Safe to plant chinese wisteria near cattle?
Comments (7)Gosh I would not plant Wisteria unless I could mow around the whole planting. Down South it must be a nightmare! I can see wanting some visibility screen, but Wisteria is a monster even up here in the North!! I had one plant, which as TINY when planted. It grew incredibly fast, turned into a heavy, thick root within a year. I trimmed it heavily, almost monthly, because it grew so quickly. By year four, the stem was two inches thick, and though short, the stem branching was bending the trellis over. I probably cut 4-5ft a summer off it, to keep it contained. Year 5, obviously outgrowing the space allotted, I moved it. Lucky for me it died after. Stem was over 3 inches by then, height was short, but only because I was so harsh in pruning. Still had a 6-8ft spread sideways with over inch thick branches. I have never been tempted to purchase another one! This was with severely cold winters, heavy snow and frozen ground. The thought of how big it would get with mild weather, untrimmed is scary! You might REALLY enjoy Clematis as vine cover much more! Some varieties get quite tall, but you can shear them off. Many kinds have random flowering over the whole mild season after the early big bloom. Tremendous variation in flower shapes and colors available if you hunt for them. A line of taller trellis' or fake old split rail fence, in front of the cow fence, could easily be covered with Clematis. Would make a good visual break, at the edge of the yard. Being able to mow up to the cow fence will be to your advantage in keeping yard chores minimized. There are other vines available too, but so many turn into menaces once they settle in. Silver lace Vine is another thug, grows over 20ft a year, will eat the whole fence! Some of the Hydrangea vines are equally bad. Maybe seasonal vines, Morning Glory, Cypress and Cardinal Vines, Moonflower vines, Purple Hyacinth Vine, could be equally attractive. They give lots of vine coverage, pretty flowers, yet do not go crazy with time like the perennials. Die back in "winter" seasons, though they may reseed easily in a warmer climate. I like their bird attraction qualities too. Just be really careful with those hardy vines. You do not want to be sorry later....See MoreStrongest Wisteria Fragrance - Chinese or Japanese?
Comments (11)Floweryearth, Mine is the Chinese kind. The fragrance is awesome, you can smell it everywhere outside. I have the tree form, grows a little different from the vine. I bought it from a family owned nursery and it was blooming and smelling great when I got it. They told me to make sure it gets water regularly and it doesn't like afternoon sun. God, the afternoon sun here in SC is hot. So I planted it out front, next to my porch. It will never really get very tall, which is nice, it's only 3 feet tall at the most, and it has "branches" of wisteria coming off it. You have to pinch it back all summer long, or if you want more flowers, cut with sissors all summer long. I love it so much, I am very good with trimming it so it doesn't get out of hand. The Chinese and japanese have a very sweet strong fragrance. I have "Blue Moon" an American wisteria, growing out back on an arbor. It is small and I have no idea when it will bloom. Buy one already blooming and you will know it is old enough to bloom. Don't fertilize it ever. Just mulch and keep watered. I cut them both, all the way back, a week ago. Wisteria like anything else, must be taken care of to make sure it doesn't overtake your yard. But oh when it blooms, "How sweet it is". Good Luck!...See MoreWisteria: Chinese or American?
Comments (14)mommyfox how are you and the little ones? I've been distracted lately, saw that you were both doing great haven't heard any updates. I got an amethyst falls at calloways one year. Thought it would be a no fuss plant and put it in a difficult area. The drought combined with my neglect killed it on year 2. I bought it in bloom and was enchanted. It's tulip time here. How did your bulbs turn out?...See MoreI'm in LOVE with this tree. Want. It. Now. ----> Blue Chinese Wisteria
Comments (33)they are not attractive to me at all unless in bloom, which is about two weeks. ron's description of the summer habit with long tentacles going in all directions is spot-on as well as the ground hugging cables that require seriously sharp pruning equipment (not all seem to do this unless you remove too much from the top). the shoots reach a stage that becomes sinewy and don't cut easily. i am still working to eradicate one that i trained as a standard and decided to take out. after i cut the trunk, sprouts started coming up everywhere, running just beneath the surface from the base to 15' away. it may behave well for you in your colder zone and i can certainly see the attractiveness of it but it behaves badly here and is one of the worst exotic invasives we have. the white-flowered form is much more uncommon in natural areas. having said that, here is a photo i took of one at a friends house that he planted after digging it up along a roadside. this one is probably chinese wisteria with the lighter bark and april flowers. should be about 9-10 years old....See Morewoodyoak
last yearYou're right re the cut-and-paste for the botanical name.... Very frustrating that it changed the font for the rest of the post and I couldn't figure out how to change it back!
I remember seeing a lot of red tones in your garden pictures....(?) Have you been trying to grow red hibiscuses? In my garden, the red ones start a few weeks later than the pink ones and bloom into October, although I also have had a couple of buds produced in early November if conditions are mild enough! It seems to me that, looking at the leaves (see first picture below), there must be two foundational species so maybe the one that contributed heavily to the red flowers also contributes to later blooming times.
Most of my pink ones are either a 'Disco Belle' (?) or seedlings grown from it - like all seedlings, a few do not look much like the parent plant and I have one that has much larger flowers of a deep pink plus one that has smaller flower, a paler pink color and no 'eye'.
They all grow easily from seed. If you'd like to try any pink one, send me a message through Houzz to tell me where to send the seed capsules. I don't deadhead the capsules until mid Sept....
Deep pink 'child'
Mother and child :-)
Child, no 'eye'
Midnight Marvel Sept. 28 2014
Fireball Aug. 27 2014
ruth_mi
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