There is such an explosion of colour on the farm at this time of year. As the weather gets colder, the colours seem to get brighter. "Natives" are such great winter flowers with a surprising variety of colours and textures.
Leucadendrons change colour as they come into "flower" which is often over winter and spring. While some are a rich deep maroon or red throughout the rest of the year, in winter they change colours. Safari Sunset lives up to its name and changes to a vivid pink with creamy yellow inside. And Red Gem, one of my favourites, changes from maroon to a buttery yellow with peachy tones. I just love it!
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| Red Gem in July |
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| Front - Safari Sunset, Middle Right - Red Gem, Back Left - Inca Gold |
Other Leucadednrons that are green for most of the year, start to "glow" yellow. Inca gold has a rich yellow colour highlighted with red tips. I'm still looking forward to the Leucadendon Gandogerii and Goldstrike - fabulous spring yellows.
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| Inca Gold |
There's so much gorgeous texture about too.
I love playing with colours and textures at this time of the year.
It's heartening, on cold wintery days to be playing with such cheery colours too.
And there has been some cold weather lately - snow and hail and bitter winds.
When you're out in the fields picking in the wind and the rain, with tingling cheeks and numb fingers, what keeps you going are the gorgeous colours that are filling the basket.
Winter is so pretty!
What kind of temperatures do your flowers have to tolerate, Grace?
ReplyDeleteHi Min, we have temperatures down to around 2 degreesC and sometimes lower. We don't get frost very often though. We have an exposed position close to the coast and the air movement means we don't get the really heavy frosts. It's never been below zero that I can recall. As for heat, it can get very hot here on one or two days in summer. We had 42 degreesC one day last summer. But on the whole, it is a temperate climate with most of our rainfall in winter. Hope that helps!
DeleteG