The End

of the wisteria. One day of rain and this is what is left.

Rats!!!

Ah Wisteria!

We were warned, after we planted wisteria to grow up the posts to the deck and arbor, that we shouldn't have done that. Thanks!

Once a year, for about a week and a half, it is beautiful, covering the arbor and making this lovely, sweet-smelling, lavender curtain over the steps.

I really do love it.

But then there's this:

I have learned in years past that it is just easier to leave the leaf-blower on the deck, so that once a dozen or so times a day, I can blow the debris off.

And not to anthropomorphize or anything, but why does wisteria hate us???

In addition to dropping pounds of debris on the deck, it has taken the end of the arbor and pulled it downward. It's trying to take down the very structure on which it lives! It has also tried mightily to take down the gutters on the back of the house in its attempt to get up onto the roof of the house.

Once the blooms are gone, we (the royal we - I mean dH of course) will fix this and that will require taking down some of the trunks of the wisteria.

And I think I will buy a machete!

Wisteria

The wisteria on my arbor over the deck is in full bloom now and I love it. It is this beautiful for a week and a half or so, and then, daily, snows purple blossoms all over the deck. It's a mess, but worth it for the time we have this beauty right outside our back door.

However, perhaps this wisteria can be classified as a parasite or a virus; it is trying mightily to destroy the structure on which it lives, as you may be able to see from the photo below. Look at where the horizontal beam is no longer attached to the support post. We (That's the royal we- what I really mean is dh ) have to figure a way to muscle it back up and a way to fasten it more securely. The weight of the wisteria has, over the past few years, pushed the beam down in spite of really sturdy bolts.

And here is a bonus-my beautiful fuschia. Once it gets hot, really, really Georgia-hot, the fuschia shrivels up and asks to be put out of its misery. But for awhile, it's a treat to have and the hummingbirds love it.