Longwood Purple Wisteria. I first saw a picture of this selection in the book, Wisterias, A Comprehensive Guide, by Peter Valder, and it was a definite purple. I was able to get a start of this from Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, and we asked them to give it a name. When we did not get any results from them after several years, we gave it the name 'Longwood Purple', and it has stuck. This year, after a colder than normal winter, the color was even a more vivid purple. Dr. Todd Lasseigne, who is the Director of The Tulsa Oklahoma Botanical Garden, noticed the same with the plant in their garden. Its racemes are about 2" longer than those of 'Amethyst Falls', but it will not always flower the first year like 'Amethyst Falls', but the second year and thereafter, it gets better and better. This is a Southeastern U.S. native. The last pictures shows a comparison between 'Longwood Purple' on the left and 'Amethyst Falls' on the right. Since, we have found out that Longwood Gardens had received this selection from Woodlanders, right near us in Aiken County, SC, who had found this growing in its native habitat right here in an old country church yard. But they never put a cultivar name on it. So more correctly, it should be 'Woodlander's Purple.'
Zones 6-9
