Mine is bright purple.

It appears this year, in which we had received more than our average rainfall by the end of June, & then stuff all, some plants have done well, & others are suffering.

The mangoes are showing good fruit set, & some gum trees have flowered for the first time in years, but it is the Jacarandas, the Bohemias & the Bougainvillier that like it best. Every where you go around here the world is full of purple flowers. I have never seen Jacarandas so full of flowers, or the colour so vibrant.

We have one white Bohemia for contrast, but the silky oaks, poincianas, & my lovely Hibiscus are all suffering. What little flower they are producing is rather wishy washy in colour.

So even though the grass, in some places, is starting to crackle when you walk on it, the jacarandas are filling the sky with purple joy.

Yeah cut one down the other day I hate those purple flowers. They just turn into sludge and stink.

Stay tuned for my next post on what I ate for breakfast.

always amazed at the wonderful creativity of our Creator ( or random chance for those who deny Him). The roses are blooming!

I love Jacarandas, and there are plenty where I live - and Bougainvilleas. Every now and then the conditions are right for a better than average display.

Blue blue my world is blue, nope that’s a song.

I have two Jacarandas both under one foot tall but I have high hopes for them. I have a very tall but scraggly silky oak but my favourite is my swamp with its weird and wonderful flowers popping up in unexpected places. One surprise was oxygen weed which has lovely little cup shaped single white flowers that suddenly appear just above the surface. I think I have two bougainvillea’s... do they have big thorns?

A storm is on its way here and although one passed through quickly last night which set off a symphony of marsh frogs I think much more rain is needed for the local flora.

When I first arrived here I figured the locals just weren’t into gardening but then discovered there had been several years of drought and water restrictions holding them back. Since that eased off I’ve seen many front yards begin to bloom.

Hasbeen my garden is in trouble.
Well over average rain fall for 4 full years it looks bleak.
Black clay cracked as it it never rained.
Yet my bottle brush, reds pink and white took off.
Best flowers? eastern Rosella scaly breasted and the plain grey *you broke it bird* near as I can get to the call.
Turning the ground multi colored with the chewed off flowers.
Fruit no good except oranges, gave eleven freezer cotton shopping bags away so far that many to go, not counting hundreds to a neighbor to juice for the kids.
Stone fruit not this year.
Put all day lilleys in one survival bed, tough and in flower will make it
We need rain.gone from foot rot flats, even one dog the right color, to Simpson desert.

Houelly, you must have too much concrete. The leaves & flowers of the Jacaranda only require one slow run with a mower to chop them up enough to sink into a lawn, feeding it.

Jacarandas are one of the "good" plants, acting as nutrient pumps. Their deep roots gather nutrients from way below where most plants, & all grasses can access them. A lot of this is distributed on the surface by leaf & flower fall, making them available to a whole range of desirable plants.

Unlike our eucalyptus who's leaves take years to rot, this nutrient is soon available, making everything flourish.

Hasbeen, my world is yellow. Yellow with wattle flowers. Not now – too late in the season. Mostly in spring.

There are nigh on 1000 species of them in Australia. Acacias, that is.

As a botanist I worked on them in WA in the late 70s and early 80s. I collected over 100 then unnamed species. I’ve got one named after me and I have collected the type specimens for a few species.

In immense variety, they put on magnificent floral displays right across Australia in practically all vegetation types from rainforest to desert.

They’ve coloured my world enormously for four decades.

Wow, Acacia Luddy!

On my impoverished sandy, but neutral PH soil, I have used them a pioneer, to add some nitrogen, & shelter things like mangoes & Illawarra flame trees for a few years.

I also used them for quick privacy. I have been amazed at the amount root growth they leave. Where they expire, there is quite a mound left behind.

The jacarandas have been great this year near my office but are starting to fade now, looking forward to the great shows of red/orange which normally follow from the poincianas (I spotted the first poinciana flowers I've seen this season last weekend).

Not much colour in it but my grapes have the best bunches on them at the moment thatbthey have had in years. Hopefully the minors won't destroy too many.

R0bert

8 mm of rain last night, mind if I post again.
Each of us from different back grounds and walks of life have found reason to be gardeners.
That returns ten fold to us what we put in.
Put 12 Irises over the fence free this morning, but the smile was worth far more than cash.
As I select my day lillys, keeping the best more smiles and a beut garden next door, next year? may find another who wants some too.
Eating out of mine, not strictly to save money but the sheer pleasure of eating fresh.
Minors gone, for how long? well not too concerned it appears others hate them more than me.
Predicted about 50mm but it is not here unfortunately, will take much more to fill empty tanks all around here.

Hi Belly, great stuff, I hope you can send us some. My daylilies have mostly dropped their buds in self preservation.

I'm just keeping some of my stuff alive this year. Watering it all, enough to be productive would be a full time job I'm afraid, & too expensive on water.

No lemons or mandarins next year, they have dropped all their buds, & are just holding on.

It really is crazy, in a year when we'd had above our total annual rainfall before the end of June, that it is this bad. Of course my house is on the top of the hill, to get the breezes, but it drains too well. Down the slope there is still some moisture keeping even the grass going for a while.

My biggest problem is the roos. With my place being very lightly grazed, a reasonable grass, we have a lot coming in. Many of them are bush kanaka roos, from the deep bush, probably the heavily treed national parks, that have really dried out. They just don't understand fences. The local roos just jump over them no trouble.

I am no longer even trying to keep the fences up on the bottom paddocks, & have had to put down 3 roos that badly injured themselves smashing those fences.

The sooner it rains, & they go back to the parks, the happier I'll be

Hasbeen if my survival bed makes it to end January we will arrange a bag for you, promise.
Fruit may make it, just citrus rest is , well not happy same weather and rain looks little chance.
Any one seen Poirot?
Am concerned re Lexi.
In her two post names she has become part of us for a very long time.
Forrest tracked me down.
Wounder if Poirot being our longest history woman could put an e mail together expressing our concerns.
GY sent me one from TPP once.
NOTE
Lexi was unwell, and I think weary of confrontational posts.
And my views on the Muslim riot thread.
But she just may need a pick up knowing most of us care.

Hope you got the rain hasbeen, it5 was all arounme, but the8mm was it.
Even 10klm away got 29mm.
Sadly lost one of my dogs to a bait today.
She is in my garden and will not be forgotten.

Hi Belly,

Don't know how to go about that re Lexi, although would be glad to try to ascertain that she's okay. That's the only thing with this forum in that you make human attachments and then people sometimes drop off the side of the earth - gone......

I'm inclined to go with your thinking that if she was intending to leave, she would have told us....mystery much.

Sorry about your dog.
We planted a tree over one of our much loved pets. It's called the Sammy Tree, and it now cascades over and shades the chook yard. I never look at the tree without thinking of Sammy.

Mines RED! I just read another one of rectal... er rehctub socialist posts :(

Yep thanks Belly, we hit the jackpot this time. 18mm yesterday, & another 6mm to this morning, all beautiful gentle rain that sank in where it landed, rather than running off. Did not overflow the gutters either, so made it into the tanks. You can see the grass turning green as you watch.

Sorry about your dog, baiting is such a dreadful thing. Luckily we don't seem to have any of it around here these days.

I lost both ours in about 12 months to snakes, one to an eastern brown & one to a yellow belly black. Then my youngest turned up with a Belgian Shepherd, that needed a home. Sort of like a fat Lassy, & moults everywhere.

With the wet first half of the year, the ticks are very bad, but so far so good.

I expect an explosion of daylily colour in about 2 weeks or so, now they have had a good drink. Something to really look forward to.

Yes I've been wondering/worrying about Lexi, the last time she went missing it was a health problem, but it's longer this time. I'll keep my fingers crossed for her. With my classic car forums you can email any one, through the forum. They can chose weather to respond or not at their choice. It would be good if that worked here.

Good about the rain hasbeen and thanks to you both.
Bit afraid tom take action, but GY has sent other messages.
My dog, well she was my friend and died in my arms Blue was hername, she came after Sky.
They both romped around my yard together and only Blue came with me to one part of the garden, she is buried there.
Big men may not cry, but they feel more than they say, or they are not men.
Rain? took only the 8 mm but flowers are popping up.