A magical midwinter day with the sun highlighting the furry buds on Magnolia Iolanthe
Mark and I bumped into an old colleague at the garden centre this week. Admittedly, there was a cold southerly wind blowing but we were a little surprised when he commented that he thought we were having a particularly cold winter this year.
July 12, 2026 Our maunga, the mountain, Mount Taranaki
We did not contradict him but it is an indication of how fickle and unreliable humans are when it comes to assessing weather. We had a long and very mild autumn season stretching past the shortest day. The snows came late on the mountain again, as they did last year.
July 9, 2025
I had thought that I had never seen the snow come so late and then Facebook Memories brought up a post from July 9 last year and it had no snow. So it actually came earlier this year, albeit by a few days only.
The pink Magnolia campbellii this morning
Today is a perfect midwinter day – bright sun in a cloudless sky and no wind at all. I headed out with my camera this morning to record what is in bloom already here. While the pink Magnolia campbellii is flowering right on cue, I feel that it is early for the main showing of the snowdrops and the first narcissi.
Narcissus Twilight
Those little white dots, which you may not see on a phone screen, are part of our meadow plantings of snowdrops. Taken early this morning before they unfurled their petals to the sun.
Matariki this year was from July 8 to July 11 with the public holiday on the 10th so I am only one day late to wish you Mānawatia a Matariki, happy Māori New Year. The dates are determined by the rising of the constellation known here as Matariki, or the Pleiades in astronomy circles. It is only in recent years that the majority of the non-Māori population in our country has realised the significance of this time but we have embraced this truly indigenous celebration as part of our total culture. In that short time, it has become a special time with a unique character that transcends just the addition of a new statutory holiday.
For me, it is the start of a new year in the garden. And as this world lurches from crisis to crisis at an escalating rate, the start of a new year is a time for hope. We certainly need to reminded of hope and simple beauty in life these days.
Cymbidium orchids are already blooming
The National Library says of Matariki:
“The 3 major principles that guide Matariki are:
remembrance — honouring those who have died since the last rising of Matariki
celebrating the present — gathering together with family and friends
looking to the future — looking forward to the promise of a new year.”
2 thoughts on “A day late but Mānawatia a Matariki”
Tim Dutton
We’ve had a much warmer start to winter here too, where we are, north of Wellington. June was 1.4 C above our long term average and so far July is 0.4 C above average. We’ve only had 4 frosts too, which is fewer than ever by this time in winter. However, it has been amazingly wet, with well over 600 mms of rain here since the start of June. In spite of that the Snowdrops have started to flower and both the Magnolia stellata and Fairy Magnolia White are starting into bloom and the latter has hundreds of buds on a tree that is only 1.5m tall and has been in the ground only 2 years. We have been very surprised about that as it didn’t flower much in its first year.
Those Cymbidiums are gorgeous, we are very envious.
We haven’t had the rain so far but the geographic variations are now fairly extreme. As I shared my delight about our perfect day, a social media friend from Central Otago commented it was 3 degrees and very grey there with low cloud and that was late moring! I hope your Fairy White gives you great pleasure. It is a good plant.
Tikorangi The Jury Garden 
We’ve had a much warmer start to winter here too, where we are, north of Wellington. June was 1.4 C above our long term average and so far July is 0.4 C above average. We’ve only had 4 frosts too, which is fewer than ever by this time in winter. However, it has been amazingly wet, with well over 600 mms of rain here since the start of June. In spite of that the Snowdrops have started to flower and both the Magnolia stellata and Fairy Magnolia White are starting into bloom and the latter has hundreds of buds on a tree that is only 1.5m tall and has been in the ground only 2 years. We have been very surprised about that as it didn’t flower much in its first year.
Those Cymbidiums are gorgeous, we are very envious.
We haven’t had the rain so far but the geographic variations are now fairly extreme. As I shared my delight about our perfect day, a social media friend from Central Otago commented it was 3 degrees and very grey there with low cloud and that was late moring! I hope your Fairy White gives you great pleasure. It is a good plant.