Everything the classic wisteria does, but in pure white rather than the familiar violet-purple. Fragrant racemes up to 50cm long hang over pinnate green foliage in early summer — cooler and more restrained than the purple, and striking against brick or dark stone.
Tell us the size you are after and we will confirm price and availability.
Wisteria floribunda ‘Alba’ is the white form of the Japanese wisteria — identical in habit and vigour to the more familiar purple, but carrying pure white flowers instead of violet-purple. If you have only ever seen wisteria in its usual lilac shade, the white is a genuinely different effect: quieter, cleaner, and particularly good against red brick, dark stone or a painted wall where purple can disappear.
Everything else about it will be familiar. It is a climbing perennial with handsome pinnate foliage, and the fragrant flowers hang in long racemes — up to 50cm on a settled plant — in early summer, spilling over a pergola, a doorway or a wall. Once established it grows quickly, asks very little, and is impressively long-lived; plants outlive the people who plant them and flower more generously as the years go on.
Give it a sunny or partly sunny position and soil that stays moist but drains freely. It needs a solid support: wires, a stout trellis or a well-built pergola, because a mature wisteria becomes heavy and its twining stems are strong. Prune twice a year — shortening the whippy summer growth, then cutting back again in winter — to keep it in bounds and build up the flowering spurs.
As with any wisteria, patience pays. It may take a couple of seasons to settle before it flowers freely, and it is worth the wait.
Every plant we sell is backed by four decades of growing. Tell us about your garden and we’ll tell you honestly whether this is the right plant for it.
Get in touch
HedgeXpress