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molineux_gw

Is wisteria Blue Moon fragrant?

Molineux
18 years ago

My wisteria quest continues. I've been looking for a wisteria that won't eat the house, which pretty much rules out Chinese or Japanese wistera. Then I read about our native wisteria. AMETHYST FALLS American wisteria looked promising until I actually smelled a bloom at a local nursery. It was not pleasant and the bloom looked more like a lilac blossom than what you'd expect from a wisteria flower cluster.

Now I've read about the new Kentucky wisteria (W. macrostacha) BLUE MOON that has the repeat bloom ability of American Wisteria, matures at 30', and is supposed to be sweetly fragrant.

That is if you can believe catalog descriptions, which I don't. So has anybody on this forum actually grown this wisteria and if so is it SWEETLY fragrant? The perfume doesn't have to be as strong as Japanese wisteria, just so long as it is detectible and isn't offensive.

Oh and does it really repeat?

Thanks,

Patrick

Comments (13)

  • monarda_gw
    18 years ago

    Sorry I can't help you, though I would tear out Amethyst Falls and replace it with blue moon, if it were truly more fragrant.

    I just wanted to report -- though it is only indirectly related to Molineux's question -- that yesterday I went to the Philadelphia flower show and the most fragrant thing there was somebody's Chinese white wisteria grown as a standard in a container. You could smell it from 10 feet away -- it was unbelievable -- fabulous.

    I, too, am leery of Wisteria because I have spent many hours in my back yard hacking away at the shoots, which spring up everywhere, far from the original plant -- but when I see it sometimes, climbing up the front of a brownstone in New York -- perhaps contained by a garbage pail -- I am stricken with envy. There is nothing more thrilling, and I think maybe, just maybe, I should do the same in my front garden.

    I did plant Amethyst Falls on my cousin's fence in Long Island only because she insisted. She doesn't know about Wisteria's downside. It's been ok but not fabulous.

    The flower show and its scents gives me the sensation of time travel. It is on till tomorrow, if anyone wants to go. On the drive home I heard Gustav Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer -- where at the end the singer tells that he fell asleep under the Linden Tree, and the fragrant blossoms fell around him and he forgot himself, his woes, his suffering, and the world.

    When I smell wisteria I am transported back to my childhood when, having spent my first five years in a Manhattan apartment, I first encountered it. In 1951 we moved to Rome, Italy -- it was April and balcony was swathed in it and the bees swarmed all around it. Our apartment was so dark and cold and the light outside -- and the bees and the flowers -- so warm and brilliant. And I sat there eating a large and exquisite chocolate Easter egg decorated with violets that had had a pretty toy inside. Then I think of my poor landlady who lived alone in the apartment downstairs and who would invite me in and, gesturing and sobbing, with tears flowing down her face, show me one by one the framed photos of her husband, son, nephews, father -- all her relatives -- all dead. It was 1951. I was six years old and couldn't understand a word she was saying, since at that time I spoke no Italian having just arrived in Italy. I think perhaps she must have been Jewish.

  • arctictropical
    15 years ago

    This is a reply to a very old post, but my 3 year old Wisteria 'Blue Moon' bloomed for the first time last Spring. There weren't a lot of blooms, so the fragrance was not noticeable unless you were directly in front of the blossoms, but I thought that fragrance was quite pleasant. I lived in Japan for two years and saw many beautiful oriental wisteria vines and trees in bloom that were breathtaking and quite fragrant, but I am quite pleased with 'Blue Moon'.

  • monarda_gw
    15 years ago

    I want to report on Amethyst Falls after all these years (I had completely forgotten about this thread). It may not be fragrant but it was huge and breathtaking this past spring blooming next to the golden yellow rose Autumn Sunset (very fragrant) and with sparkling red American honeysuckle climbing through them. It really held its own -- with a multitude of deep blue purple clusters that looked more like a blue tropical vine than a wisteria. It was an amazing sight, I wish I had had a camera.

    I am really happy, too, that I don't have to hack it back twenty times a year like I do the Asian wisteria in my own tiny garden that comes up everywhere, traveling many feet under the ground. I only wish Autumn Sunset had held on to more leaves during the summer.

    I still sort of hanker after a white Japanese wisteria, though. But I can resist.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Autumn Sunset

  • chickencoupe
    10 years ago

    Does the Asian versions (invasive) of Wisteria go to seed easily. Can it be controlled if planted in a container?

    I love trimming and pruning plants. Because of my back, I would not be able to dig up runners. It's just too much of a risk.

    But in a very large container?

  • meyermike_1micha
    10 years ago

    Way too much of a risk...I can't stop pulling any of mine out..Tired of it..The flower also smells like cat spray..Horrible..

  • User
    10 years ago

    Hi all!
    Hi Mike!
    I bought a tree form of the Asian wisteria about 4 years ago.
    It is in a large pot, I root prune it every other year.
    It is extremely fragrant, smells nice. No cat pee.
    I cut a few pieces off a couple of years ago and rooted them in water in the winter. They bloomed in spring. In water.
    I took them to PA for my best friend to plant she wanted a beast to climb about 50 ft of fence. LOL! She loves it.
    I can't plant my tree in the ground.
    I couldn't stop it from spreading, it is unreal.
    I still have it though, and it is doing just fine in a pot.
    I also bought a Blue Moon wisteria about 5 years ago from a well known online vine nursery,
    It is still alive, hasn't bloomed, and doesnt grow very much.
    If it smells like cat pee I'm throwing it in the trash.
    But, the Asian doesn't, in case anyone wants to know.
    You can keep it in a pot, just root prune it at least every other year.
    And remove the pot off the ground about once a month in the growing season so it doesn't root in the ground and spread that way,
    Or perhaps just place it on cement pavers or a patio.
    They are beautiful, aren't they?

  • monarda_gw
    10 years ago

    I have heard wisteria is hard to keep going in a pot from a horticulturalist friend said she couldn't keep it alive in a container, so this is really encouraging news from Butterfly4u. I can't forget the fragrance of the Chinese Wisteria at the flower show. (I think it is called "Texas White" and it is apparently not too hard to find). I plan to give it a try. Even if it only lives a few years, it would still give so much pleasure, and if new ones can really and truly be kept coming along rooted in water (!?) -- that would be really great. Root pruning - what a pain, but what must be, must be.

  • fragrant2008
    10 years ago

    I have 3 wisteria as bonsai so if they can grow in a bonsai pot i am sure they will not be that hard to grow in a normal pot you just have to make sure you give them the right fertilizer and you have to be very careful with the watering esp in summer

  • Aaron Rosarian Zone 5b
    3 years ago

    @donnagoetz I'm in the same part of Wisconsin and considering Blue Moon. Did your plant end up sending out shoots everywhere, or was it just the main plant that had lots of vines? I know it's been a while, but it's the variety I'm considering and you're in the same exact area, so I figure you'd be a great resource. How aggressive/invasive was it?

  • loneroc1
    3 years ago

    Blue Moon originated in Minnesota and is hardy to zone 3. It survived -48F here with some damage. It has a nice fragrance and blooms thrice a season.

    It is vigorous. It has climbed from a pergola up a nearby 'Diana' contorted larch and colors the tree lavender. Sigh! 😌 A good sigh! You do need to keep an eye on the base because it sends out runners along the ground that need to be removed now and then. It also produces plenty of seed. The seedlings grow slowly and are easily pulled. And given to friends. Who will become your best friends out of gratitude. I love this plant.

    Steve Herje

    SW WI USA. USDA zone 3, where it's fifteen below as I write this.




  • loneroc1
    3 years ago

    Yep. It has a good fragrance. It even wafts on calm, humid days. Steve H

  • rosesmi5a
    3 years ago

    Place it where you can mow all around it. I live in central Michigan, and it sends out shoots all around in a 4 foot circle. It blooms 2-3 times a summer with a vaguely sweet clover scent. It will throttle anything in its reach -- which is over 15' wide. Don't put it by anything it can climb, unless you want it there.

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