Flowers
Wisteria
Sometimes also called ‘glycines’, the mysterious-sounding wisteria are the mauve and white climbing plants that gracefully wrap their braids around the Japanese Bridge’s trellis.
It was perhaps Marc Elder who best described the impression made by the wisteria’s strong fragrance in the water garden: “You enter the water garden by crossing a humpback bridge covered with wisteria. In June, the fragrance is so strong it’s like moving through a tunnel of vanilla. The white and mauve clusters – a light mauve almost like a watercolour painting – droop like whimsical grapes into the watery green foliage of the vines. As it passes through, the breeze harvests the scent. The noise of footsteps attracts the fish, who crowd around in the shadows underneath the wanderer. You lean over and see your own image, which is suddenly shattered by the mouth of a fish like a finger on film.”
See them
Wisteria flower in spring, blooming from April to June.
Grow them
They are best planted in autumn in well-prepared soil. Wisteria are large creepers and require staking or a frame on which they can climb, as they can easily grow to five metres or even taller! Prune them in summer and winter to properly control them, or leave them to grow ‘naturally’ as they have on Giverny’s Japanese bridge.
