Monday, July 04, 2011

Winter in Melbourne

Actually Melbourne has been experiencing a fairly mild winter, after a cold snap in May boded ill for the season. In June the weather improved and we’ve had fine sunny weather, many days reaching 17° Celsius, probably an acceptable summer temperature somewhere in the world.

The plants are confused…

My impression was that hibiscus is a tropical plant, but the hibiscus in the front garden is blithely flowering as if it was already spring. It was only planted in spring last year as a mere twig, now it’s several feet high.

hibiscusJPG

Also in flower in the front garden – who said it was winter – are lavender, rosemary and the hebe shrub.

hebe

And the grevillia…

grevillia

…and early irises.

iris

More typical of winter however, are violets who appreciate the cold and are flowering in abundance. When we first moved to this house in 1986, the only violets were the white variety, but I planted a purple one which has taken over. I picked a bunch of them this afternoon and took a photo.

violets

To save us from complacency, the weather has taken a nasty turn this week with chilly 12°C days predicted for the next few days accompanied by wild winds.

1 comment:

Clare Dudman said...

Ha, yes - 17 dgrees is just what we have been experiencing here in the UK ...in mid-summer. It's even been dipping to your chilly 12 degrees some days!

Those violets are gorgeous!