Here spring is a wonderful unfurling of fresh new plant growth repeatedly disturbed by stormy weather. Sigh. Recently, on a reasonably still and fine day, I saw this lovely wisteria beginning to flower. A lot of the racemes (flower stalks) are still just in bud, but the light lavender flowers give the plant a soft appearance, like the foam on waves. It could be Wisteria 'Caroline' which is an early flowering hybrid.
It is growing on a picket fence in an older suburb, but flowering so profusely you can't see the fence or the long stems of the plant. Wisteria is a climbing plant but not a vine. It is a bine. A vine climbs by sending out long stems or runners which grab hold of some kind of support using tendrils or suckers. But a bine climbs by winding itself around a support. Apparently most bines spiral in a counterclockwise direction. And while it is said that Japanese wisterias grow in a clockwise direction, distinguishing them from Chinese wisterias, most wisterias grown in gardens are hybrids. This one looked as if it was growing counterclockwise, but I am not sure. Who cares - it is another delight of spring.
I can't really say that is so for this sight...
Today's southerly front approaching off Wellington's south coast. The sea is still but the foaming rather lavender coloured clouds are to me a bit reminiscent of the wisteria. And the storms do have their own, if much more dramatic, beauty.