Sunday 21 August 2011

signs of spring in the winter garden

warning: a photo heavy post

Winter brings its own beauty. Here is our bare Senkaku Japanese maple chosen especially for those beautiful red branches.These Bergenias flower all through winter so they are not looking their best now.
The hellebores are still flowering too. In the northern hemisphere they are called "Christmas Rose" but that wouldn't make sense here. We have pink, white, rose and green varieties.This camellia Japonica flowers in late winter. The shrub is about 180cm (6 feet) tall so this is just part of it. We can see this from the kitchen, dining room, family room and spare bedroom windows and it always looks so cheerful.Here's a closer look at the camellia flower.It's still officially winter here but there are lots of signs of spring right outside my back door. This mint is coming back after its winter dormancy - it's in a pot right outside my laundry door.This azalea is about a metre from the pot of mint, growing near the garden tap.WM has planted tree begonias (from cuttings) along the narrow corridor that runs down the bedroom wing of the house. It does get beaten back by the frosts but just keeps flowering.I have seen some blossom trees in flower locally but our weeping cherry is still hiding in these tight buds.The lower parts of our wonga wonga vine (an Australian native amongst all these exotics) is in bud. Higher up the archway the flowers are in full bloom.The archway leads to two steps down into our sunken circular miniature rose garden. Most of the roses are still bare but here is a brave flower of the "Blizzard" specimen.The back of the rose garden has a trellis covered in evergreen banksia roses to screen the neighbour's house. The vines are just coming into flower.The strawberry plants inside the swimming pool fence are in flower - yummy.And a surprise - even to me - some hardy cherry tomatoes that have survived right through a fairly cold winter; Sydney's climate is not too bad!And finally a real sign of spring, the goldfish sunning themselves in the backyard pond!

9 comments:

  1. Wow, you have a gorgeous garden. Thanks for sharing. We are on the downhill side of our summer, but it's been so hot and dry this year, most everything has shrived up.

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  2. Spring is beautiful in any hemisphere. Thanks for sharing.

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  3. What a wonderful tour-so many familiar flowers and some wonderfully Aussie names like wonga wonga vine!
    Beautiful, thank you1

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  4. Your gardens are beautiful! I love the wonga wonga vine! so fun to say!

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  5. It is lovely to see the garden come back to life after winter, isn't it. I have a self-seeded cherry tomato plant that has had a lot of fruit on it all winter. Sadly I do not like tomatoes at all!

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  6. Beautiful photos. The change from winter to spring is a wonderful time.

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  7. Cherry tomatoes are the best! That Japanese tree is just beautiful and I loved looking at your flowers!

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  8. What beautiful sights of spring. So odd to think of your summer starting as ours is ending.

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  9. you still have tomatoes? Wow!

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