This Is BIG !

This little flower may not look like much, but believe me. IT'S HUGE ! !

It's on my Michelia Yunnanensis bush and it's been a long time coming. The Michelia is from Tibet and is supposed to do well in cooler climates, but maybe it just hasn't liked Melbourne all that much

I brought this bush back to Melbourne with me when I was relocated from Brisbane....that's ten years ago....I had it in a large pot for a little while, then we planted it in the garden, but it's always struggled. This is the first time the bush has budded up and then bloomed to this degree.

I've had the odd flower here and there and there have been buds before, but they never really amounted to much...but this year. WOW! It must be all the water I kept bucketing to it through the summer. I must have carted hundreds of buckets of water from our tanks to the bush just to make sure the roots stayed moist...and alive ...at least it felt like hundreds!

It still has a long way to go though, because this bush below is what it should look like....

...and this is mine. A big difference huh? Mine looks like a stick insect compared to the lushness of the one above, but hey, I'm wrapt with this years flowers show.