The Wisteria is Coming

Asian Wisteria is a rather pretty and floriferous plant that is incredibly invasive in the southeast US.  As Fairweather Gardens describes it, "[it] grows up to 100 feet, rooting wherever it touches the ground."  It is the bane of our yard, growing high up in a number of pine trees along the property line and putting runners halfway across the lawn.  In fact, last weekend, my wife, our neighbor and myself spent several hours cutting it off at ground level and treating it with Roundup.  We generally refrain from using poisons in our yard but wisteria is the one exception. 

So why am I telling you this? Because the reason it is so prevalent around here is the beautiful flowers it gets early in the spring.  We have one plant that was planted next to the deck and well away from anything else.  So that one is staying for now.  But I cut back the runners that grow under the deck every year.  And that plant is getting its spring buds right now.  And those buds make up my submission this week for Macro Monday.  You can see other macro shots over at Lisa's Chaos.  Hope you enjoy and come back in a few weeks when I'll post some shots of the flowers once they open.