The little stick on the right hand side is my Eucryphia nymansensis. I planted it in November 2015 and I have been nurturing it with attention ever since. It is one of the favoured plants that gets watered. It is privileged with extra water because I can’t imagine that it is that happy finding itself in sandy soil that dries out quickly. The Nepeta stalks covers most of its base and the Gaura does its best to protect it too.
That was why I was surprised to see what I thought could be a flower. When I saw the brown tip I thought I had missed the flower and it had already started to dry up. But no, the bud seems to burst its cap to flower.
As the flower opens the cap falls off. I would have been disappointed to miss my first flowers.
I was very excited to see my first flower open and smell the perfume. I was not disappointed.
We even had some rain and it did not destroy the flowers which dipped and let the rain run off.
Perhaps this is another reason that the bees love the Eucryphia flowers. They can act as natural umbrellas.
Apart from the beauty of the flowers and their perfume, the flowers also attract bees. This year I only had four flowers on my tree but I could see that it was going to be popular with the bees. I hope it does some growing next spring and produces some more flowers next summer.
a french garden 