Wisteria

In 1991 I went to Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania over Memorial Day weekend to go river rafting. The rafting was fun and there was great hiking through areas surrounding the river filled with rhododendrons and mountain laurel. It rained quite a bit for a couple days so we went to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, which turned out to be the highlight of the entire trip. Near the end of the tour we walked outside through a trellis covered walkway from the house to the guesthouse. A huge white wisteria was trained on the trellis and hundreds of white wisteria blossoms hung through the trellis over our heads. I thought it was one of the most stunning things I had ever seen.

In 2000 I moved to house on a one acre lot in Ypsilanti Township and that trellis was one of the effects I wanted to create at the new house. In 2002 we built the first section of what would eventually be a 5 section pergola in front of the house and planted a white Wisteria floribunda on one corner. The wisteria is 'Snow Showers' and came from Carroll Gardens.

Wisteria are notorious for taking years to begin blooming. There are all kinds of suggestions on the web about what you should try to make it start blooming - root pruning, don't fertilize, threaten to cut it down - but from what I can see you just have to wait. This one poked along for the 7 years until it finally produced 4 blossoms this year (you can see a couple of them in the picture). Based on my experience with the wisteria I planted at my last house, now that it has started, it should begin blooming more profusely each year.