Snow - of sorts - on these Hot Spring Days

 

Snow - it seems - is raining down onto my stone seat and the bird bath. An impossibility, on these warm days? (And some sort of opposite tautology; can snow rain down?)

My weeping white wisteria tree, or Robinia, has pure white petals which are constantly drifting down, coating the ground. But when the rosellas visit and nip off whole flower stalks, the confetti becomes more like heavy rain than soft blossom.

Last year Ms Wallaby (pictured below) ate a lot of the fresh fallen blossom but this year I have a thick blanket of snow-white petals, particularly pleasing where new shrubs are still very small. (Any minute I expect a Hollywood movie-style wedding party to arrive.) It's extraordinarily beautiful and not what I expected or planned when we built our little wallaby-proof garden fence.

A wonderful surprise.

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)