Wisteria Walk
Benedict and I have been discussing the joys of wisteria, and waiting for a good couple of weeks for that spectacular moment when the utterly stunning example of this wonderful climber on the corner Gloucester Circus and Royal Hill is in its full glory.
Well - I got the email entitled "It's out!" this morning - and I now urge you to go and see this mauve monster in all its purple pomposity. Even Benedict himself would admit that mere photography can't do this one justice. My favourite view is from across the road by the shops (Benedict ogles it whilst queuing in Drings) but he got right under it for this shot (and was caught at it by Kirsty...)
Indeed, since we all seem to be whipping ourselves into wisteria-frenzy (well - ok, one or two of you have enjoyed the pics; that's frenzied enough for a poor old Phantom who needs a cup of tea and a sit down at the sight of a bunch of glads...) how about we create ourselves a Wisteria Walk?For example, in Straightsmouth, a little purple haze goes a long way to softening that building site in the background:
Benedict also points out a rather fab example in Hyde Vale...
...and this splendid fellow in Park Vista:
More will be added as I find 'em, then I'll arrange them into a walk for wispy wisteria womantics... Suggestions welcomed. And don't restrict yourselves here, folks. I'm no Wisteria fascist. I'll take anything interesting - laburnum, clematis - whatever - if it's lovely, wheel it in...
Labels: Green Greenwich, wisteria
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
13:49
14 Comments:
Who took the photo? Was that Benedict? If so, I walked past you at about 12.20ish as you were crouching underneath it taking the pic... And I was rather miffed, actually! I had passed it earlier in a hurry, but having my camera with me, intended to take a picture on my way back because I loved the mauve against the blue of the sky (also a sight worth waiting for). You can imagine how surprised I was that somebody else had had exactly the same idea at the same time. Worse still, your camera looked a great deal more professional than mine, so I hurried on. Your photos look a lot more professional than mine too! Great pic...
Thank you kirsty, thats very kind of you. You may have seen me there ,indeed there was a veritable queue of paparazzi waiting with fingers quivering on their shutter release in anticipation of the unfurling of that sweet scented blossom.
BTW Phantom I thought it was spelt with a Y ,but looking it up in my brand new copy of the Readers Digest Plant encyclopedia (new to me from Halcyon Books published 1971) I find that the genus is Wistaria and is Sinensis (Chinese Wistaria) and can grow up to 100 feet high! Spelt with an A after Mr Wistar....whoever he was.
And kirsty , you should always stop for a chat, I always do and am constantly amazed at peoples conviviality.
Well, I would have done, but a) you (if it was you) looked awfully serious and I didn't want to interrupt and b) my stomach was rumbling.
Much as I love a chat, I love lunch more!
btw, I was intrigued by the spelling - I've not seen it with an 'a' before. I looked it up in a couple of my books, and the Hamlyn Encyclopaedia has wisteria, as does the DK guide to climbers and the RHS Plant Finder directory. So I checked Wikipedia, that definitive source of info:
"The genus was named after Dr. Caspar Wistar (1761 - 1818), a professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania. As a consequence, the name is sometimes given as "Wistaria", but the spelling Wisteria is conserved under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature."
One learns something new every day...
Kirsty - if you have other angles/views etc I'll always like to see them!!
Kirsty, thanks for that info,
Dr Casper Wistar, what a great name. I do look serious I'm told but usually just thinking about the sky or sausages. I'm with the Phantom on the pictures thing I always love to see what other people see in the same subject.
Yup that purple and blue thing has really got it going on!
I love a good Ceanothus me, but they are just ending though. They go an electric purple in the evening light!
Wikipedia, right or wrong.
Mmmmmm, saauusssaggge.
(My two life mottoes. Shamelessly lifted from Clive Anderson and Homer Simpson, respectively).
you should check out the rather lovely wisteria running along several houses on Blissett Street.
Don't forget the lovely Wisteria on the bottom part of Royal Hill (the little section that branches from Blissett St to South St), all the more lovely for being attached to a tiny, presumably Georgian cottage.
Of course, I'd be mute with jealousy had our own nine-year old wisteria not flowered for the first time this year. Three - count 'em - flowers, huzzah!
3 flowers! well done Paul,er thats 1 every 3 years right? But I bet now its started flowering it will go from strength to strength.
I'm battling with a huge Greenfly infestation on my Lornicera Brownii.
Damm pests,I may have to resort to chemicals?
Photo, please, Paul. We need to pay homage to your tenacity. They take seven years to flower, don't they? That calls for a glass of the bubbly stuff...
Benedict - try spraying it with a solution of washing up liquid. IS that organic? I somehow doubt it. Yeah. I guess that's chemicals too. You're doomed...
Thanks Phantom, yes I was out at 6:30 this morning spraying with an eco brand soap solution.....fingers crossed, it seems to be working.
I just love that honeysuckle,its been such a good pal, its stayed green and kept flowering all winter.
There's a lovely spray of wisteria on that dark alley leading from Vanbrugh Hill to Maze Hill NR, breathing life into an otherwise unpleasant little walk.
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