Source: Rare Find Nursery (NJ)
Size shipped: #1 pot (measured about 1.5')
Planted:
First flowering: July 2020 (a tiny bit), June 2021 (decently)
Like the Hazel Smith sequoia, this is another one I plan to grow in pots in perpetuity, so that I
never need to worry about the roots spreading and suckering, so that I don't need to take up any
valuable full-sun spots in the yard (there are not many available), and so that I can take it with me
easily when I inevitably move in the next few years.
(Edit: No longer true as of 2023; see below.)
I intend to train it as a free-standing tree, so
I was pleased when Rare Find sent me a specimen that was growing independently of any kind of support
structure.
Though this wisteria was one of the last of my plants to wake up and start growing in the spring, it proved pretty unstoppable once it did start... to the tune of 4' just by early June. But of course, being a vine, it didn't care to lignify any of that growth, so it always flops over and looks ridiculous. Since it's proven its utterly ridiculous capacity for straight-line growth, I may clip it back earlier than expected to try to force branching lower than expected, just for the sake of thickening up the base of the new growth to make a respectable trunk. Of course, these would be "sacrifice" branches, not intended to be part of the permanent framework, as I want that to start a tad higher up.
I had the bad luck of losing the 2021 flower show to animals (I'm guessing deer) after I could tell how good it was eventually going to look but before it actually got to looking that good.
2022 saw the buds start to swell in mid-April, well before what I had gotten used to; I'm guessing the newfound full sun exposure had something to do with that... well, that and an incredibly warm late February and March that had us anywhere between one and three weeks ahead of schedule.
In April 2023, I planted the wisteria out in a suitably sunny-yet-moist spot in my new back yard just as the buds were swelling (I timed it thus to minimize the effects of any root loss that might occur), and 2.5 weeks later I could see what looked like some flower buds developing in the midst of the leaf-out. However, it wasn't long before most of these barely-extended shoots were eaten AGAIN, which made me wonder if I should have just stuck to the original plan and just kept it in its #7 Root Pouch forever (so that it could stay on my deck where the deer cannot reach).