A few years ago, I discovered the Mimosa Trail on the internet. The mimosa plants forming the Mimosa Trail are the descendants of acacias transplanted from Australia to the south of France in the 1850s. The plants are celebrated when they bloom from January to March with festivals and parades. Many people travel from town to town on the Riviera coast to immerse themselves in yellow.
Most years I don’t watch for wattles in bloom, I usually only notice them by accident, a sea of brilliant yellow in winter and early summer, lining Sydney’s railway corridors.
This year I decided to do a wattle watch by going on my own Mini Mimosa Trail. My wattle hunt began in earnest in September.
While acacias definitely grow along railway lines, I decided to check the gardens in my area first. To my surprise I didn’t encounter a single acacia. To carry out my Mini Mimosa Trail, I had to do my wattle viewing back at the railway line.
I found plenty there.
I brought some acaicial brightness into my home.
This is the shadow of the acacia in another vase, after it had dried out and I’d removed its leaves.
The contrast between wattle world and non-wattle world a month later.
Acacia flowering season is over, but I still have the photos.
Why don’t we celebrate mimosas in Sydney?