My Spring ends when the daffodils and tulips in my garden are finished. There are a few lily-flowered tulips left - they are the latest blooming tulips - they last in the heat and can bloom into June. But once the Alliums show their colour along with the Hesperis and Columbine, I've moved into what I experience as Summer. I guess that makes me a meteorological season person where spring is March - May. I want summer flowers in the garden like Cosmos, Snapdragons, Alyssum, any of the yellow sunflower type blossoms, and so on.
Wisteria sits within Spring and Summer for me. When we visit Longwood and the Wisteria is blooming without any leaves showing, then it is spring-blooming. When there are leaves, as there are now in Niagara, then it slips into summer. There are many bush/shrub wisteria in Niagara. People have trained them into shrubs so they bloom close to the ground at eye level. One can see the dainty flowers and experience the beautiful scent close-up. The Germans call it blauregen which means “blue rain”, while the Chinese use the term zi teng which stands for “blue vine”.
Wisteria carries with it many stories and legends from the Chinese and Japanese where it originates, and into Greek and Roman legends. According to the Piedmontese tradition, there was once a shepherdess named Glicine who was despaired for her physical appearance, she felt ugly compared to the other girls in town. One day, while she was crying, her tears fell on the ground and generated a wonderful fragrant plant, the wisteria. Surrounded by so much wonder, she stopped crying, happy to have created such a flower by herself.
