WHEN IS SPRING, REALLY?

PLANTS SIMPLY LOVE TO HERALD THE ‘SPRINTER’ SEASON.

HUMANS are funny organisms. We think that, just because we “religiously” follow the Gregorian calendar, the seasons will fit neatly into each three-month timeline we have designated as summer, autumn, winter and spring. In southern hemisphere temperate regions, these four seasons are rigidly set to begin on December 1, March 1, June 1 and September 1 respectively.

Of course, plants and other organisms react to other indicators as they are unable to flip the page on a calendar each month… Many plants rely on variations in temperature and day length to initiate physical changes such as leaf colour, leaf drop, flower bud production, fruit set, root growth and even shedding of bark.

This week’s photo article highlights the season of “sprinter”, an in-between season suggested by Tim Entwisle, a botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. Tim suggests that we actually have five seasons in the eastern Australian year, “sprinter” occurring in August/September and another new season, “sprummer”, happening in October/November. Summer runs from December to March, leaving autumn as April/ May, and winter as June/July. Makes sense.

Enjoy a few images I’ve snapped during the first month of “sprinter”.

1. Many of the ornamental varieties of flowering plum bloom earlier than their close relatives such as peaches, apricots and cherries. This is Prunus x blireana ‘Moseri’, a dark-leaved cultivar growing to around 4m high which loves to get in early and bloom from early August through to mid-September.

2. Of course, many bulbs are also early starters and start to bloom from late winter into “sprinter”. These jonquils not only look stunning, they are also delightfully fragrant.

3. Deciduous magnolias are some of the most stunning flowering shrubs and trees we can grow in our temperate regions. They love to get an early start and fit nicely into the “sprinter” flowering season. This is one of the many cultivars of Magnolia x soulangeana.

4. Not all plants are renowned for their floral displays. A classic hedging plant, Photinia ‘Red Robin’ dazzles with a flush of red new growth during August and September.

5. I simply had to include a shot of my paintbrush lilies (Scadoxus puniceus) in full bloom last week. They began to send these talking-point blooms skyward in early August, culminating in this outstanding display.

6. Some drought-hardy groundcovers like to get into the swing of “sprinter” as well. This is one of the many cultivars of the African daisy (Arctotis x hybrida), a spreading plant with grey-green foliage up to 2m wide.

7. A shady, moist spot in the garden will be brightened in August/September by our city’s floral emblem, the Toowoomba Violet. A small, slowly spreading plant to about 30cm high, this violet has a propensity to hold its fragrant, violet/purple blooms well above the foliage. This beauty’s real name is Viola odorata ‘Princess of Wales’, becoming our floral emblem in 1996.