I meant to take a picture of the wisteria blossoms each day so I could track the progression from bud to flower but the recent rain foiled that plan (not that I'm complaining about the rain!).
Here is a picture of some of the wisteria flowers as they look today and an overall shot of the whole vine in early stages of its bloom. The flowers are probably 1/3 to 1/2 open. It will probably be in full bloom by the weekend.
The rain has, in fact, been lovely. A deluge Sunday night, continuing all night, and then almost constant steady soaking rain on Tuesday. I wish we had a rain guage so I would know exactly how much we've gotten over the past few days. I estimate 2 to 3 inches.
As I poked around this afternoon I found the first sprouts from the stumps of the two hamelia plants and definite signs of life in the til-now lifeless clumps of Mexican flame vine. I even think I see the very first hints of new, red growth at the base of the Pride of Barbados in the far back. I had just about given it up for dead and was pondering its replacement.
The rain has bent the Old Blush rose almost to the ground, leading me to belive that I didn't prune it enough last week. I really don't know how much such a rose should be pruned. It's been in the ground about 4 years, I think, and has gotten quite large, about 5 feet tall and probably 7 or 8 feet wide. I pruned back some of the lower branches and some interior canes a week or so ago but, since it was already budded out I hate to chop it back too much (it was covered with buds before the last freeze and those buds were damaged, shriveled and not fully developed when they opened, but it's developed additional buds since then).
Oh and the first salvia greggi flowers have opened, on the plant to the left of the Old Blush. The other two haven't shown any signs of buds yet.
4 comments:
My salvia greggii are not blooming yet, probably because I recently pruned them back very hard. Your wisteria is lovely.
I probably don't prune enough, except for the things that have obviously died to the ground like the tecoma stans and the hamelia. Anything that's green and growing, let alone budded out like the rose, I have a hard time bringing myself to prune too severely. And then I pay for it by the end of June with a giant mish mash of plants growing every which-a-way.
Oh, Susan, that wisteria over the chairs must be breathtaking when open!
I had a starter plant in a deck container at the other house and enjoyed a modest display of blooms, but the container was too big to bring here. I've seen some made into tree forms around our area - that way they could fit in a smaller space, but don't have the lavish quality of your picture.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Salvia greggii responds well to pruning any time of the year. As soon as it starts to slack off, I take a third off the top, and it reblooms in about a week.
I'll cut many of my other summer perennials back by 1/3 in late May, just to keep them in bounds. It delays blooms on some of them, but it keeps them from getting too rangy.
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