Well after five tries, I finally pruned the wisteria correctly this year. What's even more startling is my neighbor's hardly bloomed this year, and hers always looks spectacular.
So for those of you in Zone 5b like me, cut off new growth (leaving three or so leaflets) to the branches that look like a hand with fingers, no later than late September. At least, that's what worked for me!
Can you see that I've changed the color of my house? After much anxiety I asked a color expert at Benjamin Moore who said my house looked like a farmhouse and suggested white, red or pale yellow. I've always wanted a yellow house (like my beloved paternal grandparents' house) but three out of the eleven houses on the street (in my town; the street is in two different towns) were yellow when I moved in. Then one of those houses was painted green, which was another color I'd had in mind. I didn't want to be a copycat so I went with yellow (Benjamin Moore Weston Flax). I don't think I'd paint any house white, except maybe an old Colonial, because I love color so much. I thought red would be too bold, so yellow it is! Now I have to figure out the shutter color. I was going to go with dark green but I'm thinking it's too much of a contrast. I don't really like the look of white shutters, so maybe greyish-blue? I think I need shutters for some pizzazz and detail. I'll take some clearer pictures of the house when the peonies bloom in a week or so.
By the way, I finally got a digital camera, which makes posting this so much easier, plus I'm online at home, so maybe I'll keep up better with this blog!
