Monday, May 18, 2009

Wisteria sinensis



If I had a house with a yard, the whole
place would be dripping with wisteria.
I've seen houses where the vines
brought down the porch, and thought
it would be worth having to rebuild
if you had these flowers blooming for
even a week or two every year.

11 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. And look at Mr. Bumble Bee.

    What you said, Alexa.

    I love it in trellises. Or you could bring it maybe inside (bright light?) like this.

    This would be nice in purple on a T-shirt. (It’s the Fujiwara family crest as found in Nishi Honganji Temple; Fuji meaning wisteria).

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  3. TG, the man who never sleeps !!!
    Your link is great, I've always been fascinated by bonsaï, I even tried to "raise" some myself, don't ask how it ended, but it is the first time I see a blooming wisteria as a bonsaï !

    Just like you, Alexa, I always said that, as soon as I own a house, I'll have a wisteria under the porch.
    AND I DID. 25 years ago, when we arrived here.
    And I have the great pleasure to annonce that it bloomed for the first time....this year !!!
    When you start gardening you learn patience, I didn't wait that long to add another one on the barn that was more cooperative.
    Wisterias can be stubborn and awkward ! Not surprising that some TV series take place on Wisteria Lane !!

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  4. Thank you for sharing your Wisteria stories, Marylène. And congratulations on your late bloomer.

    “Wisterias can be stubborn and awkward ! Not surprising that some TV series take place on Wisteria Lane !!” Ha ha. Good one!

    I watch television infrequently so I had to look up which TV series you had in mind. Of course, it’s the one about housewives with an active hobby that gives them vibrant exercise and lungs full of deeply inhaled and exhaled air. Yes, a lot like gardening.

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  5. Alexa ~ I agree!

    TG, you are such a gentleman. I love that you are including links for Marylène to help her pick up on slang and colloquialisms. {Helps me sometimes, too!}

    Such patience with your gardening, Marylène.

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  6. Me, too. I'd have wisteria everywhere.

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  7. I'm home—and so glad you all agree with me!
    So, TG, great links, comme toujours. And Mount Fuji is Mount Wisteria?? Who knew?]
    P.S.-- I've never seen that TV show either, but must admit to being semi-addicted to "The Real Housewives of NYC."

    Marylene -- I too am fascinated by bonsai. I am also incroyablement impressed with your patience at waiting 25 years(!!) for your wisteria to bloom. You deserve a medal. Sorry I wasn't able to add to the conversation yesterday. I would have said that I think your speak English very very well. Puns are indeed difficult, and one of my proudest moments was when I made my first joke in French!

    Shell -- what you said about TG ( and Marylene).

    bibi -- check out TG's comment on yesterday's post—I know you like turtles.

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  8. So here he gets all serious and huffy. Wisteria fuji 藤 and Mt. Fuji 富士山 are different kanji meaning different things. The wisteria fuji means wisteria. The Mount Fuji fuji is made up of two characters. The first is 富 (fu) which means wealth, abundance. The second is 士 (shi, or ji in this case because it follows fu) meaning practitioner. So taken together with the mountain (山)kanji they have the meaning of the anticlimactic Mount Fuji.

    Perhaps that’s enough pedantry for today.

    Speaking of previous comments I was late in posting one for May 10’s “Prospect Park Station.”

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  9. Glad you're home again safe and sound, Alexa!

    TG gets huffy over technicalities of kanji, I get huffy over busting my fufu - or is it 富富 - taking out the rubbish. Ah, the opposite ends of the spectrum!

    TG, re your Prospect Park comment: I've never seen a Kombi train before.

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  10. Shell – Somehow I should think your 富富 would tend more to the softly-curving hill-like rather than a Mount Fuji-esque steatopygia.

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  11. TG, thank you! Yes, I can assure you, my 富富 indeed is nothing like that. Or the back end of the Berkeley train.

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Thanks, merci, grazie, danke, hvala, gracias, spasibo, shukran, dhanyavaad, salamat, arigato, and muito obrigado for your much-appreciated comments.