It’s been a bit muggy here in South West Victoria, but the warm nights and long hot days have been interspersed with cloudy, cool days. Fairly typical for a Victorian summer.
Summer grasses and weeds are still bursting out of the ground and invading garden beds.
Another thing that’s been growing a bit wild is my Wisteria.
Wisteria chinensis is a plant in the Fabaceae (or Pea) family that originated in China. It’s been an extremely popular plant in Australian gardens due to the beautifully scented and, quite frankly spectacular, drooping racemes (or bunches) of flowers that can be purple, pink, or white in colour.
There are quite a few different cultivars which have different flower habits, W. chinensis is probably most common here in Australia, W. floribunda (Japanese Wisteria) has larger bunches of flowers, and W. alba has white flowers, just to name a few.
I have two wisteria in my garden, one is grown over a wooden structure and the other is grown on a metal frame to form a graceful, treelike shape. It is right outside my kitchen window so I’m lucky enough to have a front row seat to its spectacular flowering season.
One issue with keeping this in its shape is the habit Wisteria has of pushing new growth out from wherever it can. Long tendrils of new growth can snake out from anywhere.
One thing I do which can be a fun hobby is to collect these tendrils and form them into wreaths which can be decorated for Christmas. Or just decorated merely to look pretty.
The best way to remove any unwanted new growth or suckering growth is to take hold of the growth near its base and give it a short, sharp tug in the opposite direction to which that growth is leading. This removes all of the growth point whereas cutting it will leave the growth point in situ and won’t remove it entirely.
One very important thing to remember about Wisteria is that all it’s parts, except for the flowers, are toxic. The leaves, stems, bark, and seed pods are all inedible for humans so it’s a good idea to be vigilant with small children and pets.
In my research for this blog post I came across a website that was of some interest to me. This site, moodymixologist.com, is dedicated to cocktails and cocktail recipes. One page was about using Wisteria Syrup in cocktails and a recipe was provided. There are also a few other recipes provided which use Wisteria Syrup. That might be something I have to try.
https://www.moodymixologist.com/blog/foraged-cocktails-wisteria-blossom-syrup-whiskey-sour
Til next time!
The Flowerpot Pen 