Wisteria

James wanted wisteria to grow and cover our new arbor. It's so hard to pick a variety. There are the very dramatic Japanese wisterias with pendulous flower clusters that can extend to 3' long.  The Chinese species  has similar but more fragrant flowers that generally grow to about 1 foot. American wisterias, although still woody climbing vines, barely resemble their Asian cousins (there are Korean species too). The flowers are round and the vine much more leafy.
I decided on the shorter flowers of Chinese wisteria or Wisteria sinensis -- we want to walk through the arbor after all and 3 foot flowers may be a bit of an obstacle. This lovely light purple flower is a variety called Amethyst. I can't wait to see it tumbling over the rafters of our arbor.