Wisteria or Feather Flower is native to Australia, China, Korea and Japan. This plant is described within the genus Wisteria sp., made up of nine more species that are commonly given the name Glycina or Flor de la Pluma, are climbing shrubs used as ornamental plants. I invite you to learn how to take care of Glycine or Flor de la Pluma, here in this article.
Wisteria or Feather Flower
The different species of the genus Wisteria, commonly known as Glycine or feather flower, are shrubby plants that behave like climbers. The different species of Wisteria lengthen their branches to be able to climb over other plants. These plants grow up to a height of approximately 20 meters and laterally up to approximately 10 meters.
Care and Cultivation
They are vigorous plants, a small Glycine plant can grow more than a meter in height per year, when the environmental conditions are favourable. In planted and cultivated specimens, it can produce flowers after more than ten years. In nature, adult specimens grow disproportionately and measure extraordinary dimensions. They are plants that propagate well from stakes or cuttings and by layering from specimens whose flowering performance is already known. Some considerations to take into account:
- Glycine plants grow well in acidic soils
- It grows best in places with a little shade.
- To stimulate its flowering, a fertilizer with a lower percentage of Nitrogen and a higher proportion of Potassium and Phosphorus must be applied, in order to stimulate its flowering and control the growth of its foliage.
- Wisteria are plants that develop very strong branches to direct the growth of their branches, it is suggested to place a steel cable as a guardian, because if their trunks are wrapped around their support, it can bend it.
Propagation by seed
Glycine plants can be reproduced or propagated by seeds. However, when it reproduces by seeds its growth is slow. When the Glycine plants are reproduced in this way they can flower after 10 years, to stimulate their flowering a graft can be made.
To propagate Glycine plants by seeds, the seeds must be collected during the autumn season, the collection of their seeds must be done before the pods mature and burst, disseminating the seeds hundreds of meters. When collecting them, they have to be sown in a few days, to moisten the seeds, it is suggested to soak them overnight so that the water penetrates the seed tissues.
In case of not being able to sow immediately, it can be stored in a plastic container or bag, marked indicating that they are Glycine seeds to sow. It should be noted that Glycine seeds (Wisteria sp.), are very toxic in case of consuming large amounts. For this reason, precautions must be taken when storing seeds in the refrigerator.
When your seeds are planted in a pot, the seeds are placed in holes 4 centimeters deep in the soil, watered and treated to maintain moisture. The average germination time of Glycine seeds is around 2 weeks. With this type of propagation, the plants that are born may be different from the mother plants. Because of this, they are used for rootstocks. Likewise, Wisteria propagated in this way will flower after another 7 to 15 years and even longer to flower, depending on the variety of Wisteria.
Propagation by cuttings or grafts
If you want to see the Glycine plant bloom in a short time after being propagated, you have to be sure that it was reproduced by cutting or cutting and even layering. The right time to propagate this plant has to be past flowering, if you are in a country with a temperate climate in the northern hemisphere it will be between the months of April and June or, depending on the weather conditions, also between the months of September and October.
Steps to follow:
The cutting or stake of juvenile stems of Glycine is cut, because these stems are soft they can be bent, the stakes have to measure about 20 centimeters and with a diameter similar to the thickness of a pencil, they are cut at the end of summer. Once the cuttings are cut, it is suggested to submerge them in a rooting hormone and take them to a container with a substrate of: peat moss, sand or vermiculite or a mixture of these three substrates. The substrate has to be kept moist.
While monitoring the cuttings, noticing that these cuttings show signs of branch shoot growth, it is very likely that roots are developing. Wisteria plants propagated by cuttings or cuttings have an average flowering time of about 2 to 3 years after propagation, although this depends on the Wisteria variety.
To increase the environmental humidity, it is suggested to place a translucent plastic bag or bottle on the cutting to create a small greenhouse effect, this high environmental humidity will be maintained until the cuttings or cuttings develop their roots. When observing that the stake or cutting begins to sprout, it is suggested that you remove the plastic bag or bottle, because it is possible that the roots have developed. Once the Glycine stakes or cuttings are rooted, they are taken outside the micro-greenhouse and placed in the shade to protect the small tender leaves from burning.
Layers and Grafts
If you want Wisteria plants to flower after 1-2 years of propagation, it is suggested that you propagate them by layering, as this is the most effective method of achieving this. The propagation of Glycine plants, at a commercial level, is carried out by propagation by grafting. Wisteria cultivars are grafted onto seed-propagated rootstock or mother plants. In the event that you acquire a Glycine plant in a nursery, observe the point of union of the graft, with the mother plant, and see that it is healthy, as this will indicate that the graft has been successful. This is noted by an obvious "scar" about 10 to 30 centimeters from the ground.
Uses of Glycine or Feather Flower
They are used as ornamental plants for interior decoration. Depending on its varieties, the colors of its flowers can be violet, blue or white. The length of the inflorescence ranges from 10 centimeters or up to one meter in the species floribunda wisteria "Macrobotryes".
The “Rosea” or “Jacko” varieties are some of the varieties that emit a pleasant fragrance. The best known and most cultivated species of Glycine Wisteria sinensis, called Chinese Glycine, widely cultivated in Western Europe. So too, the floribunda wisteria known as Japanese Glycine.
I invite you to continue knowing the wonderful nature and how to take care of it, reading the following posts: