Our Wisteria has finally struggled into bloom a full month late; and just as it nears its peak down comes the rain. Wisteria does not like rain. The earliest flowers heads braved the weather a full fortnight ago and are now starting to rot.
And rain does one other thing – it drowns out the scent that this ancient Wisteria gives off when the sun shines. As I write this early on Friday morning the sky is once again leaden grey but hopefully we will be spared a fourth consecutive day of rain.
It was last weekend’s dry and warm weather, with sun, that yielded today’s images. All were processed in Photoshop and then taken into Topaz Detail. Detail is a plug-in I am getting used to using. It really does make images ‘Pop’, but more than that it also seems to have a remarkable effect on shadow areas – giving them a luminosity boost.
Sadly I suspect the Wisteria is past its peak, and not really a peak. We will have to wait another year to see if the weather is kinder to it next Spring. Meanwhile – any chance of a half decent Summer?
Enjoy these images
LensScaper 
Lovely images 🙂
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Thank you, Norma. You’re quick off the mark this morning!
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Good morning! It’s 6pm here and I’ve not long got home from work. Have a great day 🙂
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Beautiful images Andy. Hope you get some sunshine soon.
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Thanks Len. I might have spoken too soon. Sun out today and the Wisteria is not looking so sick as it did yesterday!
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I planted a wisteria at our former residence and within a few years it was so big I was cutting it back. It was the crown jewel in our back yard and we loved the flowers and foliage as well as the scent of the flowers. Hope you have a better summer than spring.
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Thanks Ken. Yes, they are fast growers. The one on the front of our house is very old, it was already old when we moved in and that is 30 years ago. Controlling its growth is difficult. Ours for many years has grown away from the wall as well as along it and so it is now rather vulnerable to strong winds.
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Seems the wisteria were late both sides of the pond this year, Andy. Ours had just about reached peak when a deluge took all the blossoms away on Tuesday. They are a spectacular plant; its just a shame they do not last very long. Yours looks an absolute beauty.
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Thanks Mark. The late Spring meant our Wisteria escaped the frost (another killer). Having written early today in rather despondent terms about it, we have had a warmer, dry, and sunnier day and it is perking up again and less damaged by rain than I had at first thought. The scent is back too!
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I really like hoe you have framed your entrance! Perfect and I still smell them!
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Thank you.
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Lovely images Andy. We’ve had beautiful weather the last couple of day…sending some your way 🙂
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Thanks Edith. We are scheduled for better weather this weekend. About time too!
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I love Wisteria, but sadly we don’t have one in our garden. It sounds to me like you have been earning a truly wonderful summer – here’s hoping it happens.
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It’s a lovely day today and in retrospect I seem to have been a little hasty in dismissing the Wisteria as ‘past its peak’. There may be better to come. But we most certainly deserve a decent summer this year – last year was a washout. Unfortunately the long-range forecasters are not sounding optimistic. We need Superman to fly up high and re-orientate the jet Stream and tell it to stay in place. That sadly won’t happen!
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Andy, I just discovered your instagram site (the tag at the top of this page that I never clicked before). Terrific shots there!
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Thank you. Actually I have added very little recently. My iPhone usage comes in bursts. Message to self: think iPhone!
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I love those flowers. Such a pleasure to see them there…
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Many thanks Shimon
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I love Wisteria! So lovely Andy!! 🙂
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Thanks Rachel. It really is a beautiful sight and also it has such a lovely scent
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What a wonderful greeting at your front door (I presume it’s your front door). Wisteria I absolutely love; their Japanese femininity are so soothing. Do you prune it at all?
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Thank you. Yes, it frames the front door and every time we come/go through it we walk through a cloud of scent. I prune back the long tendrils through the flowering season and then it has another prune in the lead up to Spring. Whether that is ideal or not I don’t know, but it hasn’t harmed this Wisteria!
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So beautiful, Andy…how wonderful that you have the Wisteria right there…and hugely so. I was sitting in our yard last evening and could smell the Lilac on the warm breeze…I imagine it’s a very similar with such a heavily blossomed Wisteria in the yard…what a comforting experience.
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Thanks – yes, the smell is quite similar to Lilac. we are lucky to have two of them too! One white and one Lilac (mauve)
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Must be wonderful…when they’re not getting the dickens beaten out of them by the rain, that is. 🙂
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Beautiful images along with a well written post, Andy.
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Thanks Phillip. The Wisteria is still in bloom – might post another image next week
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What a beautiful specimen and beautiful photos to show it off! My neighbor’s wisteria bloomed this year for the first time, and I walked by it every day just to see it and smell it. It doesn’t always survive the early frosts here. Every time I see a wisteria, I think of Dan Fogelberg’s song of that name – a very haunting love song. As my husband said, “wisteria is a word just inviting to be made into a song.” Here’s a link to Fogelberg’s song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmbx4Y1UmbA
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Thanks for your comment. This Wisteria is well over 30 years old. It does not survive frosts and it doesn’t like rain either. The scent is gorgeous – a little like Lilac. Thanks for the link to Dan’s song, I enjoyed it.
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