Flower Friday: Wisteria

Wisteria

Today's featured flower is wisteria!  This is a very hardy, fast-growing vine with clusters of beautiful purple flowers.  It blooms best in full sun, and the flowers begin to appear just before the leaves come in each spring.  The cascading clusters of flowers are long and fragrant, but they generally fade by the beginning of June, so wisteria spends the summer as a green, leafy, flowerless vine.   It grows quickly and can become very heavy and messy with lots of unruly shoots, so it requires sturdy support and heavy pruning each year.  In fact, ours definitely flower best when heavily pruned at least twice a year.  We have wisteria growing over an arbor structure to help provide shade in the summertime and another wisteria vine growing along one side of our house.  We have never had any pest problems with our wisteria, and it is such a vigorous climber that it is actually considered an invasive species in some areas.  You can read more about wisteria on Wikipedia's wistera page & the National Gardening Association's wisteria page.

Assorted book & blog updates:

1.  This weekend I plan to write a few reviews for books I bought & finished reading ages ago that somehow ended up lost in the blog shuffle.  So reviews for Brightly Woven, The Dark Divine, Academy 7, and Flash Burnout should be coming up soon.  I also need to review the first four Vampire Academy books.  I purchased Spirit Bound on Tuesday, but I am desperately trying not to let myself pick it up until after I've written at least three more reviews.  I may actually have to ask my husband to hide Spirit Bound from me because I seem to hear it calling my name every time I walk past it.  Haha!  ;-)

2.  You can read an excerpt from Kiersten White's Paranormalcy on HarperTeen's website here.

3.  YAthenum is hosting a fun giveaway (featuring Perchance to Dream as one of the prizes) this week.  It ends May 30th, and you can read more details about it here.

4.  A Bookworm's Haven interviewed Rachel Vincent this week and is giving away a signed copy of My Soul to Keep.  It ends June 8th, and you can read more about it here.

5.  You can read an excerpt from Julie Kagawa's upcoming novella, Winter's Passage, which is set between The Iron King and The Iron Daughter here.  Winter's Passage will be available as a free download from HarlequinTEEN beginning June 1st.

6.  Our giveaways for signed copies of Lisa Schroeder's Chasing Brooklyn and It's Raining Cupcakes are both ending Monday, so if you haven't entered already be sure to get your entry in soon.

7.  Keep an eye out for two more book giveaways to begin on Monday!  We will be giving away a copy of Julie Kagawa's The Iron King as well as an ARC of Sisters Red!!  :-)