Wishful thinking

Display at Safari Nursery, Lynnwood

It's not quite the end of July but gardeners, myself included, are pruning roses, buying compost and poking around impatiently in their flower beds. August, an unpredictable month, still lies ahead. August is nippy, windy and dusty.  

Clivias flower in August  - but I am not sure how well mine will do. My clivia plants, which  faithfully provided a magnificent display of orange blooms for twenty years, have been decimated by lily borer.  

South Africans living on the High Veld traditionally celebrate Spring Day on the 1 September. School children go to school in new summer outfits. Churches hold Spring Bazaars. Families plan picnics. This is overly optimistic. It has been known to snow lightly in Johannesburg on the 1 September. The spring equinox falls on the  22 September in the Southern Hemisphere, a far more realistic date for spring celebrations. But who doesn't want to reach the end of winter, even the mildest of winters as  experienced this year in Gauteng?