Heat, Hesitation, Then The Wet Season Begins ... My Dry Tropics Garden Journal ... Start of Summer, Week 52, December 2025

Garden Journal Entry - Week 52

Weather Report for December:

Seasons:  Beginning of Summer / Beginning of Wet Season 
Maximum Temps:  31°C - 37°C            
Minimum Temps:  21°C - 26°C
Humidity Levels:  60 - 90%   
Hours of daylight:  12 hrs 15 mins
Rainfall: 335 mm (13 ins) - updated to the end of the month

By the time December rolls around, the garden feels like it’s holding its breath… and then exhaling in warm, wet gusts. This is the dry tropics doing its classic seasonal pivot: the dry season hangover still lingers in the soil, but the sky starts practising for the coming wet season - more humidity, bigger clouds, sharper storms, and that unmistakable smell of rain hitting hot ground.

The Summer Weather Shift 

December, our first month of summer and the beginning of our wet season, brought full summer weather and the unmistakable "build-up" feeling.  Overnight temperatures ranged from 21-26°C, with daytime highs sitting between 31-36°C. 

Days ran hot, and the humidity changed the whole experience of being outside. The garden didn’t just feel warm; it felt steamed. By mid-morning you’re already gardening in a slow simmer, and anything physical becomes a negotiation: two minutes weeding, five minutes recovering in the shade.

The sky also got dramatic. Mornings could look deceptively bright and calm, and then by afternoon the light turned silvery, the horizon stacked up with cloud, and you heard distant rumbles that may or may not actually arrive. December was full of those weather “almosts” - big cloud builds that collapsed into nothing… until the day they didn’t, and we got a proper downpour that made the whole garden looked like it had been revived overnight.

First Rains: The Garden’s “before and after” Moment

Rain arrived in bursts this month rather than a steady wet-season pattern.

• Dec 1: a strong opening downpour of 33 mm

• Dec 2–16: no rain — a long dry pause after a promising start

• Dec 17–18: a modest return, 7 mm over two days

• Dec 24–39: the real shift — 142 mm 

• Dec 30 & 31:  downpour of  152 mm

While the early wet season rain wasn't consistent, the late December run finally felt like the wet season stepping in properly and the garden responded quickly once the deeper moisture returned -

• Soils softened after months of feeling like concrete.

• Plants that have been sitting in survival mode suddenly pushed fresh green growth.

• Mulch that looked tired started doing its job again - holding moisture, cooling roots, feeding the soil life.

Everything seemed to relax into growth again and the first proper soaking also revealed the garden’s little truths: where the water runs, where it pools, which beds drain beautifully, and which ones silently hold grudges until they’re waterlogged.

December Growth: Soft new leaves, fast decisions

Once our wet season arrives, the garden responds with that tropical speed that’s equal parts thrilling and slightly alarming. Shoots stretch, vines take opportunities, and anything you’ve been putting off (staking, pruning, re-potting) becomes more urgent because the plants are suddenly making plans.

The “summer green” starts to look different:

• New leaves are often lighter, shinier, and softer - more vulnerable to sun scorch and hungry insects.  In the early weeks of this month, time was spent re-arranging some of the potted plants out in the courtyard, like the Impatiens walleriana, to offer them a break from the direct sunlight.

• Some plants, like the Combretum constrictum, flower with a sense of timing, like they’ve been waiting all year for the heat, humidity and rain cue.  

• Other plants just explode into foliage.

What flowered this month?

Early on in the month:

Cassia fistula (commonly known as the Golden Shower Tree).

Covered in pendulous clusters of golden yellow flowers, it is a breathtaking sight.  As the flowers emerge, the tree sheds some of its foliage, allowing the vibrant blooms to take centre stage.

Lagerstroemia speciosa (commonly known as the Queen's Crepe Myrtle).

Looking spectacular in flower with large crinkled purple blooms that look like delicate crepe paper.

Throughout the month:

Thunbergia erecta, Ixoras, Allamanda, Begonia, Turnera ulmifolia, Gerberas and Mussaenda philippica x flava 'Calcutta Sunset'.

More recently, with the arrival of consistent rainfall:

Murraya paniculata (commonly known as Mock Orange or Orange Jasmine).

All the Murraya shrubs have burst into bloom, and the perfume has been extraordinary — the kind that fills the air rather than simply drifting through it. In the humid summer conditions the scent hangs beautifully, especially in the mornings and evenings.

Gardenia ‘Soleil d’Or’.

Over the last couple of days it has exploded into bloom and is now covered in richly perfumed flowers. The colour shift is especially lovely to watch up close: blooms opening white, then gradually deepening through cream to warm orange as they age — like a little seasonal sunset happening across the plant.

Summertime Wildlife Regulars Returned

• December brings the cicada chorus back. Even before the wet season truly settles in, you’ll hear it, louder by day but still discernible at night.

• More insects, like the Rhinocerus and the Christmas Beetle, appear at night, drawn to lights and the thickening air.

• It’s also the month when you start keeping an eye out for the less charming cast members - sap-suckers like mealy bugs, leaf-chewers like grasshoppers, and anything that thrives in warm, damp conditions.

What The Garden Asks Of You In December

December is not the month for heroic marathon gardening. It rewards a different approach: short sessions, strategic timing, and letting the season do some of the heavy lifting.

A few classic December rhythms:

• Garden early (or late) and accept that midday is for observation, not effort.

• Weed after rain while the soil is soft - this is when you can actually win.

• Top up mulch before the real wet season hits so the soil is protected and splash is reduced.

• Check drainage and pots after storms - water can pool fast, and roots can sulk.

• Prune lightly, aiming for airflow (humidity plus still air is when fungal issues start flirting with your plants).

The Feeling Of December: Hope with thunder in the distance

December in a dry tropics garden is a month of anticipation. It’s the beginning of the season where the landscape stops enduring and starts responding. Even if the rain is patchy, the promise of it changes everything - clouds build, breezes shift, plants lean into growth, and you find yourself looking up at the sky more often.

Until next time,
🌸 Happy gardening from the dry tropics!

November Round-Up ... My Dry Tropics Garden Journal ... End Of Spring, Week 48, November 2025

Garden Journal Entry - Week 48

Weather Report for November:

Seasons:  End of Spring / Dry Season 
Maximum Temps:  30°C - 37°C            
Minimum Temps:  19°C - 27°C
Humidity Levels:  50 - 80%   
Hours of daylight:  12 hrs 49 mins - 13 hrs 12 mins
Rainfall:  60 mm (ins)

Conditions

While November was officially our last month of spring, the garden and the weather had clearly decided that summer was already here. Most days hovered around 33–34°C, with nights staying warm at around 24–26°C. The skies were mostly clear and bright blue, but in north Queensland the colour is an intense, vibrant azure. These skies were punctuated by soft, white cumulus clouds under a strong tropical sun.

Humidity, though, was the real game-changer. By 9.00 am the thermometer might read 30°C, but with the humidity sitting around 67%, it felt more like 35–37°C. By midday, when the temperature climbed to 33°C, the humidity could push the “feels like” temperature up to a sweltering 39–40°C. It’s the kind of weather that makes both gardener and garden wilt.

The dry season lingered into the first week of November. We’d had no rain in August or September, and only 5 mm in October, so the soil had taken on that familiar concrete-like, parched crust. Then the pattern shifted slightly and we occasionally slipped into proper “build-up” conditions.

There were days when the overcast skies lifted my hopes that lots of rain was on its way. Thunderstorms began to roll through intermittently, mostly overnight or in the early mornings, bringing very light showers. These were just enough to give the potted plants a refreshing rinse, but not enough to soak into the hard, thirsty ground.

Then, during the second week and again in the last week, we finally had a couple of daytime thunderstorms with decent downpours. At last, there was some genuine penetration through that tough top layer of soil. You could almost hear the garden exhale.

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Gardening Jobs

With the heat and humidity ramping up so early in the day, gardening jobs were few and far between. After about 9.30 am it was simply too hot, too humid, and too uncomfortable to do much outside.

Regular deep watering became the main priority. At this stage of the dry season, the garden would not survive without it. I spent a fair bit of time each week setting up and shifting sprinklers around the outdoor garden beds, trying to give each corner a decent drink.

Some of the well-established plants—Ixoras, one of the Gardenias, the Murrayas and the Crotons—put on brief flushes of flowers, as if to remind me they were still hanging in there. But, overall, the outdoor beds were fairly quiet bloom-wise.

Most of the colour and life was concentrated in the shade house and courtyard garden, where the potted plants were watered almost every day. Those sheltered spaces became my little refuges: green, damp, and full of small surprises.

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Mother Nature’s Early Christmas Decorations

Despite the heat and the slog of watering, Mother Nature gifted the garden some early Christmas decorations.

One of my greatest joys this past month was coming home and walking past—sometimes right under—the exquisite blooms of Hibiscus schizopetalus, commonly known as the Japanese Lantern Hibiscus or Coral Hibiscus. This shrub is one of the original hibiscus forms and it has a character all its own.

It’s a tall, arching evergreen shrub with long, slender stalks and a beautiful, drooping habit. The flowers are delicate, pendulous lanterns, finely cut and lacy, reddish with coral-pink streaks. They hang and sway in the slightest breeze, like little festive ornaments. In a month dominated by heat, those intricate blooms felt like a quiet celebration.

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Colour in the Garden

My garden walks were brief—usually just quick wanderings in the early mornings before retreating back into the air conditioning—but even in those short strolls, there was plenty to notice:

• Signs of the coming summer: Flowering Delonix regia (Poinciana) trees and Cassia fistula (Golden Shower) trees were clear heralds that our true summer season is just around the corner.



• Caladiums waking up: Caladiums planted in the ground have popped up from their hibernation, adding splashes of colour and interesting foliage to shaded corners.



• Fireball Lilies in bloom: My Scadoxus multiflorus (Fireball Lilies) have also emerged from dormancy and are blooming, their bold, spherical flower heads adding a dramatic note to the garden.



• Gardenia in her glory: One of my Gardenia shrubs has been covered in blooms, and the perfume has been magnificent—soft, sweet clouds of scent drifting through the warm air.



• Perfume from the honeysuckle: Flowers have appeared on the Lonicera japonica (Japanese Honeysuckle), adding yet another layer of perfume and making early morning walks especially fragrant.



• Desert Roses with promise: A number of my Adenium obesum (Desert Roses) are carrying seed pods, hanging from their branches like little green ornaments full of potential.



• Queen’s Crepe Myrtle waking up: One of the Lagerstroemia speciosa (Queen’s Crepe Myrtle) has flower sprays forming, promising more colour as we move deeper into the hot months.

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Closing Thoughts

November was a month of contrasts: parched soil and heavy skies, oppressive humidity and delicate blossoms, discomfort in the heat and small, fragrant rewards in the early mornings.

Even when the weather makes serious gardening difficult, there is still so much to notice and appreciate. A lantern-like hibiscus bloom, a fireball lily emerging from nowhere, or the familiar scent of gardenia on a hot breeze—these are the small, steady joys that make keeping a garden worthwhile, even in the toughest of seasons.

Until next time,
🌸 Happy gardening from the dry tropics!