September 2024
If it were not for Weird Weather back in the Spring, I wouldn’t be calling my wisteria ‘wacky’, but that’s the word that comes to mind when I see new leaves bursting forth - and new flowers, too - in the month of September.
Wisteria is by definition an unusual plant, in that it flowers before it comes into leaf. It’s a true harbinger of Spring, especially here in the mountains where March can sometimes seem like January. The flowers emerge as racimes: tight little garlands that gradually go from bronzy-green to mauve, pink or white, depending on the variety, as they grow. In late March and early April, my wisteria usually produces an enchanting display of lavender-coloured blooms that nod cheerily with every passing breeze. Only when the flowers are past their best do the hand-shaped bunches of leaves appear,
What happened here last March - and April, and May - was a Spring so frigid and windy that the ‘little garlands‘ were frozen solid on three occasions, then blown right off their stems. Through chilly June the wisteria remained stark and bare, as if expressing its displeasure at such an unwarranted buffeting. Only in July did an abundant showing of leaves and a few racimes of blossom appear. Then…in August! …there were stirrings of vitality, wiith waving tendrils seeking a grip on the roof-tiles and multiple sproutings of new bronze-tinged leaves. And now, in September, new leaves are bursting forth as if the year were still full of promise, and emerging flower bunches nod in the autumn sunshine. What is going on here? Six months late, is this an adaptation to climate change, or merely a wacky one-off: a ‘now-or-never’ performance as Summer ends? The answer may depend on next year’s weather.