I got very excited about this. This wisteria is considerably older than I am (it is at least 40) and it has never flowered. I remember it when I was tiny. I remember it before I knew what wisteria was. I remember not recognising it was wisteria because it never flowered. I remember finding out how wisteria can sometimes be temperamental, because of its position, or the soil, or whatever, and simply never flower. I remember realising that this was a wisteria that was never going to flower, perhaps it just didn’t like the salty Pembrokeshire air.

I don’t remember a time when it was not there.

This year it flowered.

We don’t know why. We’ve all had a go at pruning it this year, perhaps more harshly than ever and I’ve trained it horizontally above the windows. It could be these things, or something else entirely. But I’m excited because the wisteria that was never going to flower, that so many of us had tried to encourage to flower and had ended up giving up hope on, has flowered. And it looks beautiful.