@Jennifer11 - Apparently you can grow wisteria from seed, though it does take years to grow.
I have some seeds from our plant so if you (or anyone else on SF) wants some seeds, please PM me with your address and I’ll pop some in the post for you.
1 Like
It’s a lovely idea Rachel but, just to warn anyone taking up your offer, it takes years AND years. I strongly recommend people buy one that has already flowered from a nursery, so you know it does flower and you can see the colour and length/quality of the racemes .
We have a beautiful wisteria that stretches the whole length of our house west wall. I was somewhat disappointed the first year we saw it flower (it was already well established) as it was a sort of murky white, but I have grown to love it dearly over the years because it is so abundant and forms a curtain of flowers over my study window. I will try and remember to post a photo as it is just beginning to come out.
1 Like
You’re quite right Sue. Here is some information from RHS on the internet I’ve just found:
Growing wisteria from seed pods involves collecting mature, brown pods in autumn, soaking the extracted seeds for 24-48 hours, and planting them in moist, well-draining soil. Seeds germinate in 4–8 weeks, but note that plants may take 10–15+ years to flower and may not match the parent’s characteristics.
My offer still stands, especially if anyone has the time for the seed/plants to flower!
1 Like
I’m not even buying green bananas 
3 Likes
At the clothes bank where I volunteer, one of my colleagues was checking a large pile of books that had been donated, when she came across a hand written poem folded up inside one of the books. It was a beautiful love poem about a husband, clearly written years ago.Luckily the volunteer reckoned she knew the source of the books donation, and drove to the ‘poet’s’ house to return it..The lady concerned was quite overcome to see the poem again, she’d completely forgotten about its existence. Her husband has since died and his widow was downsizing to enter an EHPAD, but it apparently made her day to have a lovely, physical memory of her husband restored to her.
15 Likes
What a lovely story, George.
I was grown from seed, taking years and years, still not mature
8 Likes
That’s very kind, Rachel. We would prefer not to grow from seed but in any case here is not the microclimate for wisteria, sadly.
She said wistfully… 
2 Likes
I bought and planted a wisteria a few years ago, and it died before its first year was out, and after all the effort I put into hammering a wire all across the front of the house. 
Whoops, Cheerful Thread, the wire is still there.
2 Likes
You should offer your services as a wire grower. 
2 Likes
Some cheerful news for newts, frogs and toads in our part of Normandy (though they may not necessarily read SF!). Dismantling the kit that steered frogs etc towards tunnels under a busy local road today, at the end of the breeding migration, experts working with us reported that largely due to similar efforts last year, thousands of toads that would have been crushed by cars, not only survived, but successfully bred. This explains why there are 50% more toads etc than last year..The experts said numbers will continue to grow exponentially as long as we continue to help the toads to avoid crossing the roads.
10 Likes
Full marks to you and the team, but, err, whose is the body in the green sheet? 
1 Like
Today, my electronic key refused to communicate with my car so I could not start it. Not only that, I could not release the electronic brakes to enable towing, necessitating complicated and expensive breakdown assistance. This is in the good news thread because the car came with free home/roadside assistance which expires in 5 days time.
5 Likes
My young nephew has just arrived in this Australian registered 4WD that he has been living in for the past two years. He has driven across the whole of Australia, then via a cargo ship to Cape Town, has then driven it all the way up through Africa, Spain and now France..Rather anticlimactically he is about to cross the channel via Dieppe to Newhaven to return home to the UK after some years away. I admire and respect his spirit of adventure and am envious of what he’s done. We’ve not had a guest to stay who was so self contained as to bring his own kitchen, fridge, rooftop tent etc. It will probably be something of a culture shock returning to live in his family home back in the UK.
17 Likes
Wow, just heard the French world cup anthem, it’s very good. Very rousing. Just hope all the players mentioned are playing otherwise a rewrite’s on the cards.
That is brilliant @George1 , must confess I thought such epics were too dangerous in this modern world, the closest I came to what might be called the Northern route to Australia, was with a bunch of other young people in the early '60s in a 10 year old AEC coach from London to Karachi, and then alone onto Delhi by train. From there by air via HK to Darwin where I worked for a time on road trains before sharing a car with 2 Victorians (not very old blokes but blokes from Victoria ) down through SA to Melbourne, up to Sydney by overnight train, (don’t remember if I was lifted across at the border because of changing rail gauges because I was fast asleep). Later to Townsville as a rail hobo and then back to Sydney.
Working as a taxi driver I then saved enough for the air fare home for a holiday which in terms of since then, is still ongoing. My only regret was the original return plan which was to take a cargo ship to Japan, then to Vladivostok to catch the train to Moscow and the rest of Europe. But I was in a hurry to spread the good news amongst family and friends and persuade them all back to Oz with me. Nobody was interested and I was led astray, by a woman, what else? 
1 Like
What a fabulous bloke George1. Is he sure he wants to stay? Interesting that he did not take the traditional overland route via India. I’m also wondering how the drive up through Africa went and what route he took as I could imagine some of those countries being quite sticky.
Did he work on the way?
He really is a very good bloke, who will return to Australia as soon as he has the funds to do so..He is allowed one more working visa (he’s had two such working stays already). He worked as a professional inshore diver in Australia - until relatively recently when they announced they no longer would issue long term visas for divers as they had enough (er..they don’t apparently!).He didn’t work in Africa.
His route closely followed the entire West coast of Africa, and I gather his main route concern was to avoid entering the dangerous,high risk DRC at any cost.
1 Like