Wisteria floribunda climbs by twining, and its flowers hang in long racemes that open from the top down, so a plant in bloom is never uniform. The climbing trail recurs throughout the Cole & Son archive, and this version pairs it with a trailing hand-drawn trellis, the structure a real wisteria needs, drawn loosely enough to stay decorative rather than becoming a grid.
The printing is sur-flex, which lays a thick, chalky deposit of pigment on the surface, and it is the making of the design. Each individual bud stands slightly proud of the ground, catching light along its top edge, so a wall of it has a genuinely tactile quality. The finish is entirely matte, with no sheen anywhere to flatten the relief.
It hangs with a half drop on a 0.52 m roll, with a 52 cm repeat, so alternate lengths are offset by half the pattern and the trailing stems interlock across the drops instead of forming horizontal bands. Wisteria is at ease in a cottage bedroom and in a London drawing room, which is not a common combination: the trellis keeps it graphic enough for a modern room while the plant itself keeps it soft. Painted joinery, plain linen and a good floor are all it needs.
