Nell and Bob Solt owned the wisteria vine home on Hermosa Avenue in Sierra Madre for some 47 years, before recently selling the property.
Nell Solt was always excited when the annual Wistaria Festival brought sightseers through hers and her next-door neighbors’ homes to view the now 127-year-old vine, recorded in the Guinness World Records book as the largest blossoming plant.
“It’s the cleaning that’s bad,” she told the Pasadena Star-News, of the purple blooms, in March 2015 ahead of that year’s festival. “The smell is wonderful. I’m very happy that people want to come.” (The festival uses the spelling “wistaria” rather than the more common “wisteria.”)
The private residence turned over this year, with escrow closing in April, according to online real estate listing services. The new owner had some heavy trimming of the vine done this past weekend, with some residents on Facebook wondering what kind of person would do that.
Reached for comment, owner Vicky Mak said she is doing a pruning now to “participate in the Wistaria Vine (Festival) in March, so we are trying to catch that time frame so it will grow back in time to participate in that festival.” She added she was well aware of the history of the house and the vine when she purchased it.
Before doing the work, Mak said she consulted a botanist, a landscape designer and an arborist.
“It was a huge misunderstanding that the neighbors didn’t know, and they thought we were removing everything because it does look a little bit bare now.”
Social media reaction
Sierra Madre residents took to NextDoor, Facebook and Twitter on Saturday to spread the news. Said one tweet: “Anxiously awaiting more information about the rumored destruction of Sierra Madre’s landmark Wistaria Vine, one of the botanical wonders of the world, by the new owner of its house. The city may have really screwed up by not buying at a public resource.”
Anxiously awaiting more information about the rumored destruction of Sierra Madre's landmark Wistaria Vine, one of the botanical wonders of the world, by the new owner of its house. The city may have really screwed up by not buying it as a public resource. https://t.co/GH95b3YbE3 pic.twitter.com/X5MSRU5euQ
— Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles (@esotouric) September 12, 2021
The city features the purple-flowered vines in its city logo.
Susan Henderson, an executive with the local Chamber of Commerce, was bummed when word got out.
“It is heartbreaking that I have not seen what damage was done,” she said. “I have received tons of pictures, and it is heartbreaking that it appears that the vine will no longer qualify as part of the Guinness book of World Records based on the pictures that I have seen. I have not confirmed those pictures. They were just ones that were circulating Saturday.”
Not so fast
According to Sierra Madre City Clerk Laura Aguilar, it’s not as bad as all that, and the trimming has stopped.
“The new owners of the property on Hermosa did have some gardeners, some landscape people, out there trimming the wisteria vine on Saturday,” Aguilar said Monday. “The city was notified by some of the residents that there was a trimming company, and city staff went out to visit the property.”
According to Aguilar, many city employees live in the city, and residents know where some of them live, so it’s not unusual for them to get a knock on the door from a resident with an issue.
“The city staff asked the property owners to stop their trimming until it could be determined what, if any requirements, are needed before the vine could be trimmed,” Aguilar said. “It was a trimming, it wasn’t a removal. It was a trimming of the vine.”
Aguilar, who is also the city’s public information officer, said the new owners noticed the vine hadn’t been trimmed in some time and was overgrown.
“They have concerns about the overgrowth, and they wanted to take care of the vine,” Aguilar said. “They were cooperative. As soon as we asked them to stop, they did.”
The owner speaks
Mak said she had no choice but to cut back some of the vine. “Basically, it was overgrown,” Mak said. “The weight of the vine on the roof is causing my deck to crush; I have the pictures to prove it.”
It also created a fire hazard.
“We cannot have the vines on top of the roof,” Mak said. “The whole point of cutting it back, of trimming it, the whole point is to direct the vine going to the backyard rather than on the roof. That was the only intention of what we were doing.”
Hers is not officially a historical house, Mak said, even though she said she certainly knows of its historical value as well as its place in the Guinness World Records book.
“I think a lot of people thought this was a historical house, and you cannot touch anything,” Mak said. “No, it is not.”
Mak said she closed escrow on the house in April and let the previous owners stay there until July, as per their agreement. She has not yet been able to move into the house because it needs an upgrade.
Official review now planned
To avoid further issues, Aguilar said the owner has filed a design review application with the city with a request that the Planning Commission take a look at it.
“The homeowner (has) asked that we have the Planning Commission review it and not city staff, which is a more formal review than having it looked at at the city level,” Aguilar said. “And it actually takes longer.
“Because of their commitment to the community, they want to make sure there are no questions about the process.”
Aguilar said she knows of no city ordinance that would block the owner from trimming or chopping down the vine. Unlike oak trees, wistaria plants are not protected by state or local laws.
“There is not currently anything in the municipal code that will prevent them from doing that,” she said. “That is something that we can visit and the City Council can make a decision on. But the current residents have no desire to remove it, so I don’t believe that is a concern right now.”
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California owner of world’s oldest wistaria vine does heavy pruning, sparking outcry - East Bay Times
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