Wisteria Update: 21 May 2013

For those in the know...:

Casita will be 'prime time' this weekend (25/26 May)

Next week for the standard wisterias (27/28/29 May)

The plants in front of the house are a little later (first week of June)

Wisteria Watch - May 13 2012

A mixed bag on the wisteria front.  Those plants which were in exposed locations suffered a significant set-back from the frost in early April.  In most cases they are having a go, and we will see some rare 'intermediary' blooms this year I suspect in late May, when the flowers are out with the smallest of the leaves.

In other, more sheltered areas, we have a good show - especially on the Casita (above) which is ready this weekend, and by the Loggia (below).  

The ring of wisteria around the lily pond in the centre of the garden will need more sun to mature yet:  

Free-standing forms in the upper terraces are coming on and are about a week away, given some warmth.

 The weather has proved this year just how unpredictable things can be, with spring having arrived three weeks early on the average at Iford, and yet we are now looking at a late flowering of the wisteria!  It is as though the late frosts and the drought sent everything into suspended animation for a month.

Wisteria Watch April 8th 2012

Increasing numbers of people are telephoning to ask about the wisteria, and we are directing them to the blog so that they can see with their own eyes how the wisteria is coming along.  Basically the cold weather over the last week has held it back a bit, which is no bad thing, and so we're looking at full bloom on the front of the house in about 1-2 weeks, and for the free-standing wisterias about 2-3 weeks or so, but in each case quicker if the warm weather returns.  Keep watching those photos!

Wisteria-watch 2

It is 25 March, so here's an update on the Wisteria.  The good news is that it looks like a varied picture insofar as timing is concerned, so more people will get a chance to enjoy the abundant blossom and magnificent scent.

We have the first frond about a week away on the front of the house (always the first to come out because of the South-West facing warm wall), but some of the buds in the freestanding wisteriae which are in colder parts of the garden have still barely formed buds (ETA for those, first week in May).  Here's the state of play, pictorially:

The vanguard: on the front of the manor:

 But not the whole thing, because it always starts at the tip and works back:

The casita wisteria, again with its back to a warm-ish wall, is coming along nicely.

But the freestanding wisteria around the lily pond is weeks away from being ready.

  Nevertheless, for anyone thinking that the second week in May will see the wisteria appearing, as has traditionally been the case, I suspect it will be too late by then.  Come in April, and get the best of both worlds: the blossoms in the first few weeks and the wisteria at the back end of the month.

Wisteria-watch

For those of you who try to time a visit to Iford to coincide with your favourite wisteria being out, I am running a feature this year called Wisteria-watch.  By examining the various wisterias (wisteriae?) in photographic detail, I hope you will be better informed to judge when is the moment juste for your visit.  After all, it is never quite the same from year to year and with the odd continental weather we are having at the moment, particularly hard to to predict.


Not to panic, though.  It looks like this at the moment: