As winter ends, the return of color to gardens usually lifts spirits. However, the increasingly early arrival of spring blooms is becoming a worrying trend.
In Cranbourne, southeast of Melbourne, kangaroo paws typically flower in late September. This year, they started blooming in July. These Western Australian plants are now joined by other spring flowers, attracting animals that usually wait for warmer weather.
“I’ve seen birds and insects appearing earlier because of all the flowers,” says Mandy Thomson, acting horticulture manager at Cranbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens. “New Holland honeyeaters, wattle birds, and little fairy wrens are everywhere. Even the kangaroos are early, with joeys leaving their mothers’ pouches sooner than normal.”
Across Australia, an early spring is in full effect, driven by global warming. Warmth, mixed with occasional thunderstorms, has made this one of the hottest Augusts on record.
In alpine Jindabyne, New South Wales, wattle buds are emerging as snow melts, while in Melbourne, the scent of jasmine fills the air. In Sydney’s west, at the Australian Botanic Garden in Mount Annan, paper daisies bloomed weeks ahead of schedule for the second year in a row.
“Our daisy display started popping earlier than usual,” says Chris Cole, the garden’s horticulture supervisor. In the past, gardens in Cranbourne and Mount Annan would experience weeks of frost, delaying blooms. But with warmer winters, cold snaps are becoming less frequent, allowing flowers to bloom earlier.
Mild weather in southern Australia has also kept winter plants like wattles, grevilleas, and banksias flowering even as seasons shift. “You’ve got kangaroo paws, little daisies, and wattles all flowering together—a mix of summer, spring, and winter blooms at the same time,” Thomson adds.