Little Things Bringing Great Pleasure

Spring can never come fast enough, especially now that I’m into gardening and have been able to experience the almost indescribable delight of watching the seasonal transformation of plants.

But, having been teased into taking action only for nature to take a U-turn, I’m being drawn to the less obvious delights on show in Kangaeroo Corner.

Heading into the last few days of March, my expectation was that we could see plenty of flourishing grevillea, bottlebrush, banksia and protea, not to mention the explosion of pink from Japan’s national flower, the cherry blossom, which transforms the country into what I reckon is the most beautiful place on earth for a couple of weeks each year in the early spring.

It hasn’t come to be yet, though.

The winter of 2023-2034 was mild, but the transition from winter to spring has moved at a snail’s pace.

Mid-March seemed to be heralding better things in terms of flowering nature with a couple of warm days, but these proved to be a false dawn.

Unfortunately, I somewhat stupidly trusted the notoriously fickle spring weather and transferred a lot of plants I had kept in pots over the winter into the ground in the belief that it would be healthier for them as they were showing signs of struggle.

Instead of giving them the chance to flourish with greater growth space and more access to nutrients, I ended up exposing them to fierce conditions as temperatures plummeted and wind speeds skyrocketed.

So the blooms I’d been waiting for have been held back, but that hasn’t stopped the garden from showing signs of bursting into life.

Our hardenbergia, which I delight in having grown from seed, have started to display their lovely little violet flowers.

And the coastal spider grevillea, the one potted plant that has thrived since being put into the ground, and blooming flower after flower. My experience of an Aussie native plant garden has been that grevillea are superstars.

Bush rosemary has also been brilliant, and I should be more appreciative of its tiny blue blossoms.

Still, spring blooms can never come fast enough, nor last long enough.