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Wisteria sinensis 'Cooke's Purple' (Purple Chinese Wisteria) - A woody deciduous vine that can climb 20-30 feet and as wide with leaves that are divided into 11-13 pointed leaflets. In the spring while the leaves are just budding out, this vine produces foot long clusters of fragrant lilac-purple flowers. These clusters hang below the foliage, creating a spectacular show. This variety is known to occasionally rebloom in the summer.
Grows both in full sun to partial shade with occasional watering. Is cold hardy to below 0° F. A great vine that can be trained along fences and garden walls, along and over the exterior of buildings or over a pergola where it creates a blanket of overhanging flowers when in bloom. All parts of the plant contain a glycoside called wisterine which is toxic if ingested.
Wisteria sinensis is native to the Chinese provinces of Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, and Yunnan. The genus Wisteria was established by the English botanist Thomas Nuttall while living in the US in 1818. He based the genus on Wisteria frutescens, which had previously been included in the genus Glycine and noted the name honored the American physician Caspar Wistar. Because of the spelling with an "ar" as oppose to a "er" others have speculated that it may have also recognized Nuttall's friend Charles Jones Wister. The specific epithet references the plants origins in China.
This plant has long been in cultivation after first being first imported into England in the early 19th century and was introduced into California in 1854 at Commercial Nurseries in San Francisco. A single specimen covering an entire acre in the Southern California town of Sierra Madre was recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's largest flowering vine. While we really appreciated seeing this vine in bloom around Santa Barbara and we grew it from when we first established our nursery in 1979, we found we could no longer source grafted material of it free of Wisteria Mosaic Virus. While this may not be a problem in hotter areas or for plants growing in the ground, in our climate the plant growth in containers did not outpace this virus, so foliage often times remained yellow and disfigured. We had to stop producing it in 2012 for this reason.
The information displayed on this page about Wisteria sinensis 'Cooke's Purple' is based on our research conducted about this plant from books in our nursery library as well as from information that is provided by reliable online resources. We also have included our own observations made about it as it grew in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers when we had them in our nursery field. We also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.
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