wisteria

i just love spring at the moment – the blossom and spring flowers add immense prettiness alongside the many other flowers blooming. the beautiful fragrant hanging grey lilac flowers of the climbing wisterias are so beautiful and melancholic – there is an elegance and dreamy quality to the flowers.

this particular wisteria is in Kew Gardens, one of my favourite day trips out in London.
Bred in China and Japan for more than 2000 years, wisteria arrived in the United States in the 1830s as an ornamental vine. This hardy plant can thrive as far north as New England.
Buddhism
Wisteria is a symbol of humility and reflection in Shin Buddhism. The Jodo Shinshu sect uses two intertwined, upside-down wisteria flowers as its crest.
Japanese Interpretation
In the 1820s, Kabuki drama Fuji Musume, “The Wisteria Maiden,” a young woman waits under a wisteria vine for her lover. In this context, the durable, long-living wisteria vine lends a meaning of endurance in the face of heartache.
Victorian Interpretation
According to the Victorian language of flowers, wisteria represents a warning against over-passionate love or obsession, a reference to the choking nature of the vine.