In this part of the world we officially entered Spring last Thursday. However, the contrary weather has turned a bit cold and wet in recent days compared to the last few days of Winter. I have enjoyed seeing the evidence of the season's change in the garden. There is a feeling of hopefulness about this time when we experience a lifting of our spirits.
The more evenly spaced wet weather in recent months has been good for many plants in the garden. Among the Australian natives, this Cut-leaf daisy, Brachyscome multifida, has spread well this year and brings a splash of blue to the garden.
Under the adjacent trees the Running Postman, Kennedia prostrata, has also spread well and is flowering generously. This plant grows on the cliff tops and in nearby bushland. It seems to have responded well to the dappled shade and the slightly more moist environment provided by the leaf litter beneath the trees.
The Wonga Wonga vine, Pandorea pandorana, does not need encouragement, other than something on which to climb! It is flourishing on a side fence and has just begun to open its masses of springtime flowers.
This Aeonium, perhaps A. cuneatum, has flowered for the first time. Its large, intense greeny-yellow inflorescence is very striking in the garden and would make an excellent, dramatic ikebana subject.
Elsewhere in the garden the exotic plants are also responding to the change in the seasons.
I am living in hope that the protective barrier I have put around the Alister Clark climbing Lorraine Lee rose will continue to keep the possums at bay. The wooden frame was made from the remains of the pergola. I filled in the base of the frame with narrow strips of galvanised metal and hung a curtain of soft plastic to prevent the possums from climbing along the underside of the structure to get to the top.
This was the only flower low enough for me to photograph up close.
One of the Osteospermum family, this South African Daisy is about to enter its time of full blooming. Like so many plants from Southern Africa it is especially suited to our climate. It has been a very useful ground cover in this area of the garden.
Also from Southern Africa comes the Freesia with its beautiful fragrance that I remember so well from my parents' garden in my childhood.
Here is the first of the flowers on the Forsythia that, to my surprise, is doing well. I think it must be a very robust as well as beautiful plant. (Thank you, Shirley! )
Finally, the wander around the garden ends with the first flower that opened on the Apricot. It looked quite wonderful when it was the only one open for a few days.
Some weeks earlier I had picked a couple of bare branches to use at the workshop given by Vernisher Wooh for the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School on 9th July. One of the branches was still in good condition when I attended Elizabeth Angell's class. The theme was the winter-spring transition.
My student Margaret kindly gave me a couple of flowering stems of Prunus x cistena to add to my winter-bare apricot branch. I have set the two branches on opposite sides in the vase, showing the transition. The delicate pink flowers and bronze leaves of early spring harmonise well with the colour of the vase. This contrasts with the angular form of the apricot branch that suggests a blast of wintery wind.
Greetings from Christopher
3rd September 2022
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