Is it a bush? A tree? A whazzit?

April 20, 2010 11:39 AM

Yet another plant identification question!

I am hoping someone can help me in identifying the bush (tree?) pictured in the following two (blurry/cell phone/I'm sorry!) photos:
First picture (probably the best one)
Second picture (slightly closer up, different angle)

I have loved this thing for 2 years now and it's time to find out its' name so I can possibly make one my own!
Thanks in advance!

posted by hecho de la basura to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

Best answer: Wisteria, I think, trained into a sort of tree deal. It's normally a vine.
posted by jquinby at 11:40 AM on April 20, 2010

Best answer: ...with a bit on training it here.
posted by jquinby at 11:40 AM on April 20, 2010

Best answer: Definitely wisteria. Does it smell gorgeous?
posted by KathrynT at 11:43 AM on April 20, 2010

Best answer: Just a note: wisteria is incredibly beautiful and fragrant, but the cultivated varieties are somewhat less so. This is important, because, and pay attention to this bit, if you end up with the wild variety it will crush whatever you train it to grow on. I include steel trellises in this statement (or so my bosses at the greenhouse told me.) I know the wild stuff may be tempting, because it's just so gorgeously scented, but if you're planting next to your house, your mailbox, or any trees you are fond of and would like to keep-- stick with the cultivated stuff.
posted by WidgetAlley at 11:45 AM on April 20, 2010

Best answer: "Wisteria is Latin for work" Regarding wisteria summer runners: Cut them off before they strangle a sleeping dog.
http://www.plantamnesty.org/pruning_topics/pt_wisteria.htm
posted by lois1950 at 12:02 PM on April 20, 2010

Response by poster: Wonderful! Thank you all! I haven't ever really noticed a trellis or a fragrance so I just assumed it was a bush--d'oh! I will keep an eye out for cultivated wisterias at my local nurseries now. Yay!
posted by hecho de la basura at 12:17 PM on April 20, 2010

If you come up dry at the local nurseries (and you're reasonably sure that the specimen nearby is cultivated and not wild), you might also try your hand at one of these propagation methods. Good luck!
posted by jquinby at 12:45 PM on April 20, 2010

Yup, wisteria. And WidgetAlley isn't kidding about the crushing part. I have an aunt who had a lovely wisteria growing over her 10x10' garden shed. Which looked ever so beautiful, until it crushed the shed, which had to be replaced. I also have a neighbor who lost a chain link fence to a run of wisteria, and some former neighbors who practically had to replace the awning over their front porch.

Wisteria is practically a pest around here (Pacific NW). I'm pretty sure that's the shape you get if you're vigilant about pruning it back every year.
posted by ErikaB at 1:06 PM on April 20, 2010

We have wisteria that tries to crawl into the house through a (closed!) storm window. It's lovely stuff, while simultaneously the stuff of horror movies. [Alfred Hitchcock's The Vines!]
posted by Jasper Fnorde at 1:44 PM on April 21, 2010