Yawn ... stretch ... no Garden Amateur posts since June 18? Yes, we've been taking a little midwinter break, but this morning, August 1, is such a mild, sweet morning that all Sydney gardeners know spring is not far away. So it's a good time to wake up the sleeping blogger.
Out on our streets the magnolias are bursting out in pinky purples, the wattles are dripping with golden bling, and here in our little backyard there's colour everywhere you look. On with the show ...
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| Several of our succulents are colouring up, and this Kalanchoe 'Copper Spoons' is flushed all over with coppery new growth on a shrub about 70cm tall. So classy. |
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| Bromeliads such as this Vriesia are the ideal plants for non gardeners to grow in Sydney. Just shove them in semi shade, pretty well ignore them, and they will then do this in winter. |
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| Our "groundcover" Cootamundra wattle in our front garden is at its colourful fuzziest right now. |
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| Growing poppies for Pammy in winter has become a tradition that I hope will last forever. |
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| Our pot of Aeonioum 'Schwartzkopf' offcuts that we are striking seem to have taken. |
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| Crassula 'Campfire' is a succulent which really colours up in winter. It's green when the weather is warmer, but red for just a month or two in midwinter. |
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| Same deal with the trailing hanging basket succulent, Senecio jacobensii. It's green in summer but wears purple robes to ward off the winter chills. |
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| Finally, even our silvers are shining right now. The Spanish moss which Pammy looks after, draped from the bare and otherwise scrappy looking branches of our Grevillea 'Peaches and Cream', always look superb in the early morning sun. |
All the cliches of the seasons, of winter's bareness especially, just don't apply here in Sydney. And that's how I love it.
