Winter Colour

Winter has produced some beautiful blue-sky days for us lately, and today was no exception.  This stunning unedited colour (taken with the trusty iphone4) shows where this variety of leucadendron gets its name - the Safari Sunset.  As they begin to flower, the red bracts around the flower presenter change to yellow and you can see this starting to happen here.  Flowers sold at this stage are often called Tri-Colour Leucadendrons, because they turn from red to pink to yellow, like a sunset.  And with that wonderful blue backdrop, they are particularly stunning!

This leucadendron is of the variety that I most recently wrote about in Lovely Leucos part 3.  If you want to compare the colour change, click on the link.  A few short weeks ago, these Red Gem leucadendrons were a bronzey red.  Now as they start to flower, they become a warm clear yellow, with red tips.  This bright yellow will last until the flowers and pollen presenters have done their work, and then the bracts will close around the centre again and return to being red.  

Leucadendrons are such a colourful cheery plant to be growing in winter.  And at every season they provide different colour.  I'm so happy to be growing them!