Hi There,

After 52mm of rain on Sunday night and Monday I am sloshing around on soggy ground again and hoping most plants don’t mind it too much.  Some don’t like getting wet feet and after a fair bit of rain in August a Penstemon centranthifolius sort of gave me a blank look and turned its toes up.  Of course I couldn’t see its toes because it doesn’t have any, it was just not happy about all the rain.  You could say it went all pear-shaped whatever that means.  I mean really, whats wrong with the shape of a pear, it’s just natural and they come in all shapes and sizes and I quite like them, especially when their ripe with just enough juice, not too much or you end up with a sticky mess.  Who looked at a pear and thought gee! I might make the shape of that fruit synonymous with something that goes wrong?(as a footnote, the origin of this is still in dispute according to Wikipedia).  Look at that!  its gone banana shaped, what do you mean?  Has it gone round a bend?

Here’s some photos of some trees which are pear related because their known as ornamental pears as opposed to fruiting pears.

I know these would look better with a bit of sunshine but you will just have to believe it.  See, the rain was on the way and blossom  from most tree’s don’t take to it to kindly, it gets knocked off very easy.  These are Pyrus calleryana ‘Bradford’ which is one of many different ornamental pear cultivars  and species you can get now.  They are all fantastic tree’s with white flowers in different shapes and sizes and different heights and widths.  This variety should grow to about 9 metres high and 4 metres wide.  Of course this is all dependant on your soil and climate.  Here’s a view below, looking through the branches that looks quite nice.

These tree’s do actually fruit but the fruit is only the size of a pea or there about, so one can use the term “Insignificant”.  Autumn colour is another bonus of these tree’s.  Bright reds and oranges create a stunning effect, in my opinion that is, you will just have to wait half a year to find out if they do or not!  Below you will see a closeup of the flowers.

Exquisite aren’t they.

Oh!  Look there, here comes some more rain.  We could be in for a wet spring.  Don’t worry, i live in Victoria, just wait a couple of hours and it should be different again.  A Phlomis italica  suddenly looked at me strangely  just then.

Cheers!