Bouncing back

Thankfully, summer temperatures here in Sydney have returned to something approaching the norm following the record-setting 45°C scorcher a few weeks earlier. A few plants carked it in the days after the super-hot day, notably the cherry tomatoes, but some other plants have put on the most incredible burst of growth since then, powered by a good dose of several days of summer-style showers-and-sunshine combos. My eggplants in particular seem to have taken that heatwave day as the signal to get growing.

Here's the happy little person this morning,
one of three I have growing here, and all of
them are putting out lots of lush new foliage.

This is how the foliage looked on the day after the
45° scorcher. All of the leaves which curled
and burnt after the super-hot day have fallen from
the plant, provoking the new growth spurt.

Flowers are popping out everywhere. Aren't
family resemblances one of Nature's delights?
Just one glance at this flower says eggplants
and potatoes are Solanum clan cousins.

Baby fruits are everywhere too. This purple
and white-striped variety is 'Listada di Granada'
grown from seeds bought from Digger's.

I've often read that eggplants like the summer heat but I had only understood this as meaning "grow them in summer". However, having now seen how they have responded to that outrageous heatwave, I now know that eggplants don't just like summer heat, they thrive in it.