![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiDwb5l2MeHkApsgPVa5Lw80f_V51RnyEYLzW7sRvIoORJeNegF4EAb7xjCW3t7XZwVThGNPynO_d_wI0obTrFGUVWeoacPcdbgAP8GZ7bVwam3790YvAxh7H52DclrK6nzvO8MJO1Gw0z/s400/DSCN3737+Tete-a-Tete.jpg)
It really, truly is spring. Wattles are flaring gold
against the green (those Olympian colours) flagging spring throughout bushland
and my home of the Dandenong Ranges; it's gold riches, promises of sunshine
warmth.
Daffodils are nodding and tossing wilful sulphur heads in
the garden.
Culinary garden plants are moving again: purple peas, crimson-flowering
broad beans, broccoli (purple, chartreuse), kale; and those edible flowers: calendulas (pot
marigolds or, as I knew and grew them as a child, African marigolds (my first
garden: collecting the moon-shaped seeds and forever re-sowing and growing the
plants, with the cheerful yellow and orange daisy-like flowers)), pansies and
nasturtiums. Rocket has flowered, brightest-spring-sunshine-yellow. Peas are
mainly purple, a few fruiting, odd to see; with glorious pink-and-purple
flowers (below). `Are they sweet peas?' I'm asked.
Hens are starting to lay again and take dust baths in the
sun.
There's fairy-floss-blossom on dwarf fruit trees near the
kitchen, pink and white bells on correas, and delicious fragrance from the
white daphne, too small as yet for cutting for a vase. But I've been picking Narcissus for vases for several weeks
(mostly perfumed `Erlicheer' - what a great cultivar).
I glance amongst my pots and there's a nicely aged
terracotta pot bursting with special hoop-petticoat daffodils (Narcissus bulbcodium obesus) from a
friend (above - with my latest bit of fun. By the way, these shoes are too
tiny to wear - even for me. (Thank you St Vinnies.) The succulents are a
reminder of Attila Kapitany's interesting garden (bought not stolen) from the
weekend).
Most exciting of all, is the tree peony from Mum's old
garden, a 2m monster heaved, really, as a side branch from Mum's large plant
when Dad left the house, and popped vertically into a large pot with a large
dose of optimism. It lives! It grows leaves! It has 9 fat buds (below)! Back to
earth...
There's even a leaf coming up from the crown of my dwarf
waterlily in the water garden.
Now that's
warmth.
Jill Weatherhead is
horticulturist, writer, garden designer and principal at Jill Weatherhead
Garden Design who lives in the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne, and works
throughout Victoria (www.jillweatherheadgardendesign.com.au)