Winter in a Canberra Garden
Winter is a quiet time in the garden for some but for me, mid-winter is an
exciting time for spring is nearly here and the plants are starting to move.
As well as being a time to get a range of jobs done in the garden, it can also be a time to enjoy some of things we only see in winter.
Just for fun I went into our small Canberra garden on 1st August to see what I could find. There were a few things in flower, made all the more fun by lack of leaves and colour that we might normally find.
Out the front there were a few crocus starting to flower – the first of a number of varieties we will see over the next month.
These little flowers are not the largest in the garden but they are an exciting start to the search
What next?
A little further around, under the trees were some hellebores doing their winter thing.
This is a tough area of the garden to grow much but these seem to be enjoying themselves.
Next up, the first of the camellia japonicas to flower – a taste of many more to come just as the sasanquas are coming to an end. In fact, I found 3 or 4 different camellias in flower in different parts of the garden.
Coming around into the back yard there
was the first of the Almond trees to flower. This tree is in a warm spot with brick walls on two sides (west and south) and open to the north which encourages this old tree to flower early.
Walking along the path there were a number of pots of daffodils coming into flower – mainly the hoop petticoats (bulbocodiums). Also a number of cyclamineus hybrids are just starting to open – lots of colour to come for the next couple of months.
Walking further around the garden we came to galanthus. These grow well under the camellias and seem to enjoy the Canberra climate – at least some of them do, multiplying and flowering well. Others seem to sulk struggling to stay alive. These certainly are one of my favourite sights in winter and early Spring.
Finally, the Winter iris are continuing to flower. These have been going for a few months now, requiring no attention at all. In fact, they are the nearest thing to a weed that I am happy to have in the garden.
So, a few things flowering in the garden encouraging us to get ready for
spring proper to start – I can hardly wait!
