Billowing masses of bright canary yellow from the Acacia trees
(Mimosa) planted around Torbay have been a familiar sight over the
past month or so and very cheering they are too. Most are Acacia
dealbata, which quickly develops into a sizeable tree only really
suited for larger gardens. It is widely planted along the French
Riviera, but does equally as well here along the south coast. On a
grey winter's day, they certainly help make up for absent sunshine.

Usually they start to show in late January reaching their peak by late
February, but this isn't a normal winter. For exotic, somewhat tender
trees such as these, early flowering due to mild weather is hardly
remarkable. However, in parts of the bay there are now big specimens
of Magnolia x soulangeana are showing lots of colour with the buds
breaking and the first flowers open and I've never seen them out this
early before. Now that is remarkable.

It has been extremely mild here so far with only a short interlude of
cold but virtually frost-free weather lasting barely 4 days. Apart
from wind and storm damage, many of the plants in my garden look as
fresh and green as they did in October. Many species Pelargoniums
haven't stopped flowering and and have made so much winter growth,
they'll have to be heavily pruned in a month's time. Pelargonium
cordatum in particular is now over head-high and just bursting into
its spring flush of flower. The very splendid P. acetosum; with its
blue-grey, gingko-like leaves and trailing growth smothered in large,
spidery coral-pink flowers has romped through, despite being in an
exposed basket.

Over the next few days we are due for another spate of cooler weather,
but it will have to be very cold over a prolonged period to prevent
this winter from being one of the mildest on record.