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Of all permanent flowering vines, the Chinese wistaria (W. Chinensis) is the best. It flourishes in most situations, but early spring, injury to the buds or poorly 



ripened wood causes its failure. Best to prune not at all 



The Showiest Permanent Flowering Vine-By Susan J. Homans, 



New 

 York 



A MATURE plant of wistaria, grown as 

 ■** a tree or standard, is when in full 

 bloom, one of the handsomest sights im- 

 aginable. Such a tree as illustrated above 

 is well worth travelling many miles to see. 



The plant does not grow very tall in 

 the standard form — that is, in comparison 

 to other trees. With careful pruning it 

 will attain the height of twenty feet and 

 have a trunk six inches in diameter. 



To grow the wistaria as a tree one must 

 begin when the plant is young, and before 

 it has developed too decided a vine habit. 

 I have a tree which I raised from seed, 

 but that is too tedious an undertaking 

 to be very generally attempted, particularly 

 when it is so easy to procure a plant from 

 any nurseryman, either small enough to 

 do all the training one's self or as a small 

 tree already started. 



I had tried for several years to obtain 

 a plant from the old wistaria vine which 

 had grown for so many years against our 

 old house in the country. Nothing in 

 the way of layerings or cuttings would 

 succeed. The layerings were unsuccessful 

 owing to winter depredations by small 

 boys than which there are few things more 

 destructive. 



One spring I found coming up in the 

 grass several small seedlings of wistaria. It 

 had never occurred to me to sow the seed, 

 but when I found it had been done for 

 me so successfully, I was much delighted 

 and cleared away the grass from around 

 the little plants and helped them all I 

 could to make their way in the world. 

 When we later moved to the country, 

 where we could stay all the year round, 

 the little wistaria plants came with me. 



Some of them have grown into vines, 



and it is curious to see how many feet will 

 be added to the length in one short season. 

 One I planted in the corner of the lawn and 

 kept the trailing branches well cut back 

 and trimmed the shoots away from the 

 trunk. Nine years after its first appearance 

 as a seedling, I was rewarded by one cluster 

 of flowers and was as proud of it as though 

 it were something I had accomplished 

 myself. 



The next year when it was ten years old 

 it had grown to be about five feet high 

 and was a beautiful sight, covered with the 

 delicately shaded lavender blossoms. 



In beginning to train a wistaria plant 

 into a tree, it is better to give it some 

 slight support to keep the slender stem 

 straight until it becomes strong enough to 

 maintain its own uprightness. It can be 

 trained in whichever way one elects, though 

 it is better to let it have only one main 

 trunk. 



An effective way is not to let the tree 

 branch at all except directly at the top, 

 when the branches will spread out in the 

 shape of an umbrella. I let mine branch 

 further down, but it is none the less beauti- 

 ful when in bloom. 



When it has been decided what shape 

 it is to assume, it requires constant pruning 

 and trimming to keep the young trailing 

 shoots well cut back to the woody branch, 

 as it never loses its tendency to become a 

 vine. Sometimes after only a few weeks 

 of unretarded growth, you will see the 

 pretty bronze leaves of a baby branch 

 trailing off, several feet long. The little 

 branch is trying to find some support to 

 help it to climb, twining backhand twisting 

 about itself if no other help is near. They 

 look so pretty with the tender greens and 



300 



bronze of the young leaves that one almost 

 hates to cut short their aspirations, but 

 it pays and the end more than justifies 

 the means. Cut it back ruthlessly to 

 within two or three eyes of the branch 

 from which it grew. 



After the plant has flowered and the 

 blossoms have fallen, cut the flower stem 

 off to within about two inches of the 

 branch. If it is left on it tends to make 

 the flowers poorer next year. You will see 

 if you look close that at the base of the 

 flower stem, half a dozen or more of the 

 eyes or spurs are beginning to put out little 

 leaves. The flowers of next year will grow 

 here. They always grow on this year's 

 wood. 



The Japanese prune back their wistarias 

 very severely and in consequence have 

 clusters of flowers two or three feet long. 

 The wistaria which the Japanese make the 

 most point of growing is W. multijuga. 

 It must be their climate or because the 

 Japanese are such natural gardeners, for 

 we never seem to attain just the same 

 perfection in this country. 



The wistaria most generally grown in 

 America is the Chinensis. For many years 

 after its introduction it was grown as a 

 greenhouse plant until by accident it was 

 found to be hardy. The white variety, 

 var. albiflora, was introduced some years 

 later. With one exception the wistarias 

 are all native to China and Japan. We 

 have in this country a native wistaria, 

 W. speciosa, which, is common from Vir- 

 ginia to Illinois and southward. It has 

 small bluish purple flowers. There is also 

 a white variety of the same. All the 

 wistarias are easily propagated either from 

 seed or by layering. 



