Violet lavender drug
slipping beneath my skin,
shucking off the stale air
of too long shut in,
too long shut away
whispering to me
to breathe deep and be.
The clothes fall away
till I stand like mother Eve
two bites before the apple.
Lips blush to rose,
and the tongue tastes
of sweet tart pomegranate,
while a wisp of wind
carries hair to frame my face.
All I have been is pollen dusted,
oh the wisteria sweet
kissing deep,
till I feel the promise of fertile,
drooping fat on a vine of
petals that promise nothing,
but hint at all.
A month from honeysuckle still to come,
but I can taste the nights,
raise my eyes to the mantle of sky,
suddenly clad in the skin
of every moonlit woman,
and beckoning with my being
for you to dance beneath
the far flung sky
in the arms of a Wisteria Woman.
(author unknown)
This Japanese wisteria is a woody liana (long-stemmed, woody vine that needs vertical support) that was on our property, mistakenly planted in a shallow windowbox attached to the kitchen deck. The roots had long yearned for deeper soil and were reaching desperately outside the box by the time we moved in. We removed the old deck, built a new one, placing the Wisteria at the south end with a sturdy arbor surrounded by pavers to add a small patio area on the west side of the house. The Wisteria will eventually grow to the height of the arbor and provide dappled shade on the deck when it is in bloom and leaf in the spring and summer months. In the picture above right, it only grows now to the first grid (now at about 5') which we made movable as it grows to the full height of the structure, which is about 13 feet. At that point, we will attempt to train it to umbrella the structure or maybe build more structures to arbor it across the yard. Except for the treated cedar uprights, the cross pieces are all hand-hewn from a very large cedar that we had to remove to clear for power lines.
There are about 10 species of the genus Wisteria, a member of the Pea family, Fabaceae (formerly Leguminoseae), native to the eastern United States and China, Korea and Japan. The most commonly cultivated in the garden is W. sinensis (Chinese Wisteria) and W. floribunda (Japanese Wisteria). Chinese wisteria have 6 to 12 -inch flowers that bloom all at once for a
spectacular display. Japanese varieties have12 to 18 inch flower racemes that open gradually from the base of the flower cluster. Water Wisteria is referred to as Hygrophila difformis by aquarists.
Japanese Wisteria has the most spectacular flower racemes of any of any of the Wisterias that grow to a foot or more in length and bloom in early to mid-spring. Flower color can be white, violet or blue . The flowers will turn to brown, velvety, bean-like seed pods that will mature in summer and persist until winter. The seed pods are poisonous. All parts of the plant contain wisterin, a glycoside that is toxic if ingested and can cause nausea and vomiting.
