I’m in the Sydney area.
My wax plant is starting to flower, is it usual for this time of year, I thought they only flowered in spring?

many natives flower whenever there is rain about.

Some of the local wattle are flowering…usually they wait until late May or early June…I find the local plants have been flowering “all over the place” – timewise – the last 10 – 15 years…

Mind you I enjoy the flowers at any time…

Also my Azalias and Camelias are already in flower—not due at this time

heard Pete on the radio today, he doesn’t call it climate change, he calls it climate disruption. A more apt description I think.

Fair enough – we have had rain on & off & the ‘other half’ waters it with the rinse water from the laundry, so it is quite happy at the moment!

bluegreen said:

heard Pete on the radio today, he doesn’t call it climate change, he calls it climate disruption. A more apt description I think.

Yup, I’m right behind him on this one, Madonna

Grasshopper said:

Also my Azalias and Camelias are already in flower—not due at this time

So are mine.

pomolo said:

Grasshopper said:

Also my Azalias and Camelias are already in flower—not due at this time

So are mine.

And mine.

There’s a lovely big Geralton Wax just down the road. I should go for a walk and see what it’s doing. It’s quite unusual for them to do so well here and this one is amazing.

Bubba Louie said:

There’s a lovely big Geralton Wax just down the road. I should go for a walk and see what it’s doing. It’s quite unusual for them to do so well here and this one is amazing.

they do well if they have the right depth of sandy soil and.. are left undisturbed around their roots.

roughbarked said:

Bubba Louie said:

There’s a lovely big Geralton Wax just down the road. I should go for a walk and see what it’s doing. It’s quite unusual for them to do so well here and this one is amazing.

they do well if they have the right depth of sandy soil and.. are left undisturbed around their roots.

This area is mostly clay and the bed it’s in was recently renovated and it’s still going strong. It really should be dead.

bluegreen said:

heard Pete on the radio today, he doesn’t call it climate change, he calls it climate disruption. A more apt description I think.

Possum, they usually flower in mid to late winter and last through spring. Yours is about a month or two early, but I agree with Pete’s ‘climate disruption’ theory, I’ve seen plants flowering all over the place when they shouldn’t be, and deciduous trees losing their leaves too soon or too late, and then not leafing up when they should. The jacarandas have been acting a bit strangely over the last couple of years…they are about 4-6 weeks behind their proper cycle.

My jacarandas actually flowered “on time” last year…I was most surprised…first time in 15 years they weren’t 6 – 8 weeks behind the town jacarandas…

1985 i emember things first started being awry enough for e to suggest that climate change was disrupting the natural order of things in my own garden. Cherry trees are an indication when they start flowering in autumn. What happens is that the plants go into dormancy earlier mainly due to extreme heat and aridity and the there is a cold snap followed by a warming period and they think it is spring.. start growing agin and use up the reserves to be able to restart next spring.

Morn RB.
My japanese Maple is doing that atm, it looks weird.
It’s top half was burnt badly by the heatwave , then it started putting new buds on, went into new spring regrowth and now the new leaves are in spring colour bronze , whilst the yellowing lower half is going into normal autum mode leaf drop.

If the tree is young and hasn’t established a strong root system yet then this type of disruption of cycle robs the tree of the energy to restart.. The tree may die.

roughbarked said:

If the tree is young and hasn’t established a strong root system yet then this type of disruption of cycle robs the tree of the energy to restart.. The tree may die.

It’s a meter highand wide, in excellent soils, been there a couple years and well watered. I’m assuming it will be out of whack for a season or two, but I’m hoping it will go into it’s normal cycle, in time.

Unlike the magnolia in the same bed on the opposite side , it’s powering on and has grown heaps this summer.