Thursday 29 April 2010

Random yard shots: purple petrea goes berserk

Toward the end of the recent drought the purple petrea by the front gate struggled to flower for weeks, managing only a few scattered sprays. Two weeks ago the rain came and it got a good drenching. This is what followed:



Looks a bit like photos I've seen of wisteria, but not as drapey, and ours is a shrub, not a vine. The pink poui has also been displaying itself for weeks, almost too beautiful to be real, and now its gold cousin is popping all over the hillsides and verges. Makes me glad to be alive!


[I took these photos with my ratty cell phone camera. My son needs to drop by with his trusty Canon to do this thing justice.]

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the word 'berserk' and indeed your shrub has gone that way beautifully!

Flowerpot said...

what a beauty - and wonderful pictures!

Chris Stovell said...

Once again it's absolutely pouring down here!

Phyllis Bourne said...

What a beautiful burst of color!

India Drummond said...

Ooh... lovely pictures. We used to have some bushes like that near our driveway when I was a kid. I was always terrified of them because they attracted bumble bees!

Anonymous said...

The purple is nice and the camera is not bad if the color was meant to be purple :)

Anonymous said...

Today, I noticed some purple petrea down in Central and they seem to be a though plant as they are growing wild near, or is it in, a cane field.

Liane Spicer said...

Xuxana, welcome to the blog! I'm fond of that word myself!

Flowerpot, the flowers last only a week or so - which makes the beauty that much more precious and wonderful.

Chris, it is indeed. Literally now - the rains are finally with us.

Phyllis, it's truly beautiful, and my mother's favorite colour. The house is lavender too and when this shrub bursts into bloom she's very happy.

Liane Spicer said...

Welcome, India! Yes, bumble bees and LOTS of plain old honey bees!

akalol, yup, they're light purple with deep purple centres. And it's definitely a tough shrub; ours suffered for years through various stages of potbound, including the extreme version, but it bloomed just as enthusiastically as when we finally put it into the ground and gave it some space.