Bloomin’ Slow to Flower

Argh, the wait for the spring blossoms to bloom in Kangaeroo Corner is proving to be annoyingly long.

As noted yesterday, my gut feeling is that this year has been dark, even if it was a warmer than usual winter.

And the bleak, cloudy nature of many days has, in my opinion, delayed the onset of flowers and blossoms in the garden. My unofficial Fountain of Strewth Meter attests to this feeling. The solar-powered fountain spouted consistently over the winter last year. It’s performance was sporadic this year, though. I thought it had something to do with the motor, but it actually works perfectly when the sun’s rays hit it. The problem, then, is the lack of sunlight.

Photosynthesis needs sunlight, and the darker days have meant stunted development.

At least that’s how I’m seeing the way things panning out. I might be wrong, but there is a huge difference in blooms this year compared to 2023, which had a couple of really cold days that damaged the plants.

Nonetheless, the signs of spring color are slowly showing themselves.

The dearly awaited hardenbergia, which promises to bear the first ever flowers from a plant I grew from seed, seems to be taking forever, and signs of blooming even disappeared from all but one of the pots.

Not really sure how the banksia and proteas are going, either.

The silver wattle is going great guns and the golden wattle not far away.

I’m also expecting big things from the grevilleas, though the two best flower-bearing branches from the most productive tree were lost over the winter due to snow and wind damage. But we now have three trees growing; the largest given a hard prune so it can focus on flowers, not foliage, and the “Stick,” which has miraculously grown after being given up for dead as a stick in a pot when the garden was first planted.

Today is gonna rain all day, but it’s not too cold (though below mid-March averages). The rest of the week, though, promises fairer weather. I’m planning to plant potted banksia and grevillea on the 20th, which is a national holiday. By that time, I’m hoping the spring garden will be taking shape on what will be the second anniversary of its planting. If nothing else, it’s been an awesome journey to learn about and grow to love gardening.