This is the time of year when the jacarandas flower in this city. It is quite magical.
Alas, I don’t have a jacaranda in my garden, but my neighbors do and theirs drops flowers just outside my bedroom.
In the 1930s and 40s, new mothers in Brisbane were sent home from hospital, not only with their new baby, but also a young Jacaranda tree. This may explain the number of these trees in Brisbane.
One of Brisbane’s most famous paintings is R. Godfrey Rivers’ Under the Jacaranda (1903).
Hearing my French friend being awestruck by jacarandas – their flowers fall in breezes like snow – is one of the nicer ways to spend a Spring morning.
Because they flower leading into exam time there is a superstition at The University of Queensland that if a flower falls on you you are about to fail an exam.
There’s a similar exam superstition at the ANU about some trees which release fluffy seeds around the same time of year, which I’ve had relayed to me as, ‘If ye have not commenced to study by the falling of the fluff, then ye are fucked’.
Ahh those f’ing cottonwood trees that make everyone’s life a misery. Like this: http://the-riotact.com/images-of-canberra-a-bumper-year-for-fluff/30034
At Sydney Uni we weren’t so savage in our superstitions. You were only stuffed if you hadn’t started studying before the jacarandas came out in bloom.
Here we have showers of flowering plum petals or Manchurian pears. There is something quite lovely about standing under them as the petals float down all around you.
Fabulous photos!
I still think guiltily of Sydney Uni exams when I see jacarandas in bloom. (Last night, I dreamed I was handing in two honours theses, each of a length of 2–3 pages, and hoping that that wouldn’t make me fail!)
This year they come with something of a sense of loss, or maybe becoming, because last year my then 2yo son was fascinated with them. “Purple tree!” he called without fail every time he saw one (ie, a lot). When the flowers fell, he was disturbed and we talked about it for ages. The rise and fall of the jacarandas probably made for a good 4 months of household conversation.
So this year, when they flowered again, I pointed out excitedly that the purple trees had flowered again and he was about as excited as a rock would be. And thus do all good things come to an end.
Beautiful. I have a jacaranda tree in my garden, but here in Melbourne they tend to flower later – sometimes as late as December.
That uni superstition is harsh – when the leaves start sprinkling they’re hard to dodge!
Beautiful post. Purple is my favourite colour. We have the same apocryphal story in Sydney about the new mums of the north shore being given jacaranda plants upon the birth of their children 30-40 years ago and voila a purple frenzy across the suburbs in October/November. The exam dread at their flowering is also a familiar feeling, I’m glad that all they signify for me now is Spring.
Gorgeous.
SO glad we don’t have that superstition in Melbourne or my love of the jacaranda would always be tainted. With our later progress to warm weather they are redolent of Christmas and Uni holidays.
Gorgeous post. Love them so much too. I’ve never had a jacaranda tree or one next door but when I was in hospital after giving birth to my baby boy there was a huge one right outside the window. So I always think of him (he’s now nearly 6) when I see them.
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