Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Winter flowers ...

Mahonia is one of my favourite winter flowering shrubs, the flowers are very scented, the bees, when they ventue out, love it and the berries which follow the flowers are a stunning purple. I also love the prickly, sculptured leaves !
The gorgeous witch hazel flower and it smells wonderful ! There are 2 of these lovely small trees growing in the American Modernist Garden here in the Hamilton Gardens, both are flowering now. The red flowered one above doesn`t smell very nice but it certainly beautiful, the yellow below still has last years leaves on.

Winter gardens are beautiful, magnolias, michelia, daphane, winter sweet, hellebore and a wealth of other sweet smelling trees and plants are flowering here in the Waikato at the moment, not to forget the bright, sunny Aussie, aka Mimosa or Wattle, plus the Banksias which the tiny wax eye flock to and so much more ... The native Kowhai is even starting to flower in some areas, always the first sign of spring.