After a fairly cold Winter, the last couple of weeks of August turned very Spring like, very fast!  Our garden was suddenly convinced it was time to bloom – despite some cold nights!

Here are a few photos from the last half of August and the first week of September.  It’s a pleasure seeing blosssoms on the trees, bees buzzing and bulbs starting to flower.  It’s even easy to forget those cold mornings and nasty September winds!

The flowering plum, near our front door, is possibly my favourite tree in the whole garden (well at this time of year it is). Beautiful blossoms, smells divine and looks spectacular. Pity all the blossoms end up in the house with the wind!

The Manchurian Pear in our front yard is also a favourite. It has the coolest buds, and close up the flowers are gorgeous. They are a dime a dozen in our suburb but they grow so well and are very pretty trees.

Then there is our almond. The individual blossoms are beautiful (and quite large), starting out pink and being white when they open.  Most years they get blown off by the winds but this year they are hanging in there. We might even get some almonds – until the cockatoos find them of course!  The tree isn’t quite in full bloom yet but it’s still looking pretty good.

We have a number of fruit trees in our yard.  The peaches, plum and nectarines are just starting to blossom, with the apples just behind.  In a couple of weeks they should be in full bloom, and fingers crossed the blossoms survive long enough this year to be pollinated and get us some fruit. It seems to depend on how windy the September is and some years we end up with very little.

Then there are the bulbs….. The jonquils and crocus start mid-Winter and are followed closely by the Daffodils and hyacinths. In the last week the freesias and spring stars have made an appearance. Another couple of weeks and there should be thousands more bulbs out.  Not quite Floriade but it makes for a pretty yard!