Scents of Spring: Wisteria and Lilac

A recent rain pretty much beat down the wisteria. But boy, before that, the entire yard smelled AMAZING! These pictures don’t do it justice. The wisteria was particularly lush this year. Made for lots of happy bees. The second you would walk out of the house you would smell it, no matter if you went out the front or back door. I loved sitting on the screened-in back porch while it was in its full glory. It was intoxicating.

This shot was taken through our family room window looking out towards the shed. 

Most of the wisteria grows on the greenhouse. It looks so pretty with the bleeding hearts underneath.

Wisteria on greenhouse with shed to the left.

When you walk through the back gate into the back yard and walk under the wisteria, you are overpowered by it’s magical scent.

Looking from garden gate towards back of yard.

The mass of blooms is quite remarkable this year. I think I pruned it at exactly the right time last year. I have found that is key to a successful spring flowering.

I wish you could smell this!

Wisteria on greenhouse and on the shed in the background.

As I’ve mentioned several times before, wisteria and I have a love/hate relationship. I love it because it’s so incredibly beautiful in the spring and is one of the best smells EVER, I hate it because it grows an average of 10 feet per year. Serious pruning is required every year to keep it from taking over the greenhouse and shed.

Wisteria on the shed.

I prune the wisteria on the front porch pretty much constantly throughout the year to keep it from overtaking the entire porch.

The front porch with the wisteria and azaleas.

The wisteria tree in the back yard is much more manageable than the vine kind.

Wisteria tree.

I rescued this lilac in our front yard from a mass of overgrown wisteria when we first moved into the house. It does better and better every year. This is the most blooms I’ve seen on it yet.

Purple lilac in front yard next to neighbor’s yard.

Close-up.

I know the subject of this post is “Scents of Spring,” and these don’t really have a scent, however, the skip laurel that I planted last year in the area that I had cleared out was blooming beautifully. Unfortunately, after the heavy rain, it’s not quite as pretty as this now. If you look closely, you’ll see Izzy in this picture.  :o)

Dwarf spirea, skip laurel, and Green Velvet boxwood.