Spring in Auckland

[vilakins]

I posted this in show_me_a_world, and thought others might like to see as well.

It's spring here which might not be as obvious as on the other side of the planet because most of our trees are evergreen and don't lose their leaves. However I do have a couple of trees from Europe which have new leaves, and some very pretty spring flowers.

I'll start from the top of our drive where one of our three European trees (birches) is.


New leaves on the tree by the letterbox


Looking down the drive from the top to our house.


Close-up of the blossoms in the previous photo.


Closer to the house is another tree with blossoms, but they're paler.


Red camellias in our garden, The white ones are finished but the red ones *and pink ones at the bottom of the garden) are still budding and blooming.


Clivias. I love these clivias which I can see from one of the kitchen windows; they bloom for ages and are so cheerful.

Comments

[toft]

Oh, how nice to see flowers on the grey, wet day it is here! Thank you!

[vilakins]

It's a pleasure here too after winter and a recent two-week storm. At least we do have flowers in last winter: the camellias.

[usuallyhats]

It all looks so pretty and colourful!

[vilakins]

It is, and the sun's been shining for a week which makes me very happy. The cats are loving it too and have started catching lizards again, oh joy.

[blencathra.livejournal.com]

Beautiful! I'm glad spring is round the corner for you. :)

Here the trees are turning & the leaves starting to fall. Today was lovely though. Very misty to start but a glorious autumnal day later. :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ah, so you get lovely brightly coloured leaves in autumn. It doesn't get cold enough here to get those beautiful colours.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Pretty!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Summer is on its way!

[vandonovan.livejournal.com]

Really gorgeous set of pictures, so colorful and vibrant!!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Spring make me happy: it's getting warmer and there's lots of colour about. :-)

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

Very nice... I love the second photo. Yay spring. :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It won't last that long, but our driveway looks lovely right now. :-)

[ultrapsychobrat.livejournal.com]

Most of the trees around here were brought from your part of the world--lots of eucalyptus of different types. I think we have the tree in your second picture in our backyard. It flowers in late summer/early autumn. What is it?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what it is, but it flowers in spring here so it must be something different.

[ultrapsychobrat.livejournal.com]

Here's a picture so you can see. The camera makes it look a lot brighter than it is. It's more of a dusty pinky color.

(http://pics.livejournal.com/ultrapsychobrat/pic/000cqc6x/)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I think it's different; yours has much more cone-shaped clumps of flowers. It's very pretty though!

[ultrapsychobrat.livejournal.com]

I think you're right. I looked at your picture again.
They're both pretty.

[kernezelda]

Wow, what beautiful trees and flowers! What is that huge tree with the gorgeous purple blossoms?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I have no idea! I'm hopeless with plant names. Whatever it is, it's getting too big for the drive and I should get it cut back. :-P Apparently it has a shallow root system and I don't want it blown over.

[elmey.livejournal.com]

That tree on the drive is gorgeous, I'd love to know what it is too. Where we are Clivias are houseplants--expensive ones!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I don't know what it is. I'll have to ask Greg's sister; she's a horticulturist. Those trees shouldn't have been planted there; they're too big for the drive now, but they're so beautiful at this time of year.

Clivias are blooming everywhere now. I always thought of them as hardy plants since they do so well as long as they get a lot of shade.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

It's very upcheering, in the middle of all our rain and cold and blustery winds, to know that it's spring somewhere on the planet.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ah but you get lovely snowy winters, and a bright festive spot in the middle of them!

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Christmas doesn't really fall in the middle of winter, more like right at the beginning. I've long thought it should be moved to the end of January, so that it actually came "in the bleak midwinter" instead of being an indicator that things can only get worse from now on. And, Christmas cards to the contrary, we don't get much snow down here in the plains, but I don't suppose a lot of mud would make for a very jolly card. It does feel very weird to imagine Christmas happening in summer, though!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It doesn't go with traditional European food, but for many people it's salad and a barbie anyway. It also forces most people to take their holidays far too early in summer because the schools start their long break before Christmas, but I don't mind because we go away in February or March instead when the weather's hotter and more settles and all the kids are back in school. :-)

What I hate is having not one bright spot at all in winter.

[jacteest.livejournal.com]

I'm happily staring at the purple blossom while it's raining here. That's a marvellous tree you have there.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It's far too big for its location (the neighbours complain it touches their cars when they go down the drive) but it's absolutely beautiful at this time of year. The one with the paler blossoms is the same kind and still coming up to full bloom.

[jacteest.livejournal.com]

Let the neighbours complain. You don't chop down a tree like that. Maybe a branch here and there, but not the whole tree. I'm sure there'll be complaints about all the little leaves when they start to fall. People are generally more concerned about their possesions than about the flora and fauna that surrounds them

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It's an evergreen so falling leaves aren't a problem. I've trimmed it but the real worry is that the root system is quite shallow and they could be blown over now they're so tall, so I might have them topped and shaped and also plant some smaller bushes (photinias which are already on the driveway) either side to provide root support. We lost a tree already this year in a storm. :-(

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Beautiful trees! But I can quite see cause for concern with the large one in the drive. I've seen the havoc a wind-toppled tree can create.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'll have to get someone in to top and trim it at some point. We already had two trees (other, older ones) down in the last two years.

[luinielle.livejournal.com]

Beautiful blossoms! I'm glad spring has arrived for you.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Me too! Winter is so long and joyless.

That's a lovely icon!

[corvuscornix.livejournal.com]

To echo what I wrote elsewhere: beautiful! The blossoming tree reminds me a little of the lilac bushes that practically every garden has here (I'm guessing you have them too!) Perhaps the feeling of approaching summer that they give is similar too. :-) A slightly flower-mad lady I know treasures her clivias - as houseplants. That's the only way I've seen them before, but they really look lovely "in the wild"!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Clivias are quite common here--a friend has a lot of them--and they do really well if they get a lot of shade. Mine come back year after year so I assumed they were pretty hardy, but our climate must be just right for them.