By Gary Wade
University of Georgia
Wisteria? A Georgia Gold Medal winner? You’ve got to be kidding.
Plant a Japanese or Chinese wisteria in your landscape and you’ll
spend the rest of your life trying to stop what you’ve started.
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But wait. There’s another wisteria.
Amethyst Falls wisteria (Wisteria frutescens ‘Amethyst Falls’),
is an improved cultivar of our native American wisteria. Plant
this vine and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at its less
aggressive nature.
Yes, it will climb 20 to 30 feet. But it’s less vigorous, less
invasive and much easier to manage than its Asian relatives.
Amethyst Falls is hardy from zones 5 to 9. It grows well in full
sun to partial shade.
Early bloomer
And while the Asian types may take 10 years or more to begin
flowering, Amethyst Falls wisteria starts at one year old.
It flowers on new growth about two weeks later than the Asian
types. That’s late April to early May in Athens, Ga. Late-winter
frosts seldom affect flowering. And if you lightly trim it after
it flowers, it will produce a second flush of blooms in the
summer.
Some people consider this vine a dwarf wisteria. Amethyst Falls
has smaller leaves and flowers than the Asian types. The flowers
are fragrant, lavender-blue and borne in 2- to 4-inch-long
racemes that cascade from the foliage like a waterfall — hence
the name “Amethyst Falls.”
Deer and drought tolerance are other outstanding attributes that
earned Amethyst Falls Wisteria a Georgia Gold Medal in 2006. It’s
a perfect choice for pergolas, trellises or fences.
A tree?
It can be trained as a freestanding tree form, too. Just tie it
to a sturdy stake 5 to 6 feet tall and prune the top to encourage
branching. Once a treelike canopy forms and the trunk becomes
sturdy enough to stand alone, you can remove the supporting
stake. This process is somewhat labor-intensive, but the wisteria
tree provides an unusual accent to the landscape.
Prune an Amethyst Falls wisteria in late winter, if necessary, to
shape the plant and remove undesirable growth. Then trim it
lightly again after the first flush of blooms to encourage
branching and more blooms.
A late-winter application of a complete fertilizer, such as
16-4-8, should be plenty for the year.
Amethyst Falls is easy to grow and maintain, and it offers
terrific seasonal beauty in your landscape. It’s everything you’d
expect a Georgia Gold Medal winner to be.
(Gary Wade is a Cooperative Extension horticulturist with the
University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences.)
