Every day when I walk out my back door, I feel I am being stared at and teased by scores of ‘eyes’ on my Varnish Wattle, Acacia verniciflua. The paired flower buds look ready to open, but it will be a couple of months before they flower. Most of our wattles are this bud stage including, unexpectedly, Sweet Wattle , Acacia suaveolens, which I wrote about last month as a winter mainstay. However, this year it is holding back with only some plants with a few flowers.
Finding plants in flower is a real sleuthing exercise. I found some lovely out-of-season golden orbs on Bundled Guinea-flower, Hibbertia fasciculata var. prostrata. And, with much more difficulty, some delightful tiny pink four-petaled flowers of Dwarf Boronia, Cyanothamnus nanus. Easier to see were the many tiny white tubular flowers on Prickly Cryptandra, C. tomentosa. Keep your eye out for hidden gems on your winter walks.
Prickly Cryptandra
Elllinor Campbell