Stellenberg Gardens – Open day

Tags

Aromatic Herb Garden, Garden of Paradise, Garden of Reflection, Kenilworth, Open garden, Partierre Garden, Stellenberg, Stream garden, Timber Lime Walk, Vegetable potager, Vine walk, Walled garden, Western Cape, White garden, Wild Garden

STELLENBERG ESTATE

OPEN GARDEN

21^ST & 22^ND NOVEMBER 2015

Explore Stellenberg Estate, one of Cape Town’s finest country estates of the 18th century, the internationally acclaimed garden with its old-world dignity of elegantly manicured lawns and oak trees, and many garden rooms. Stellenberg encompasses twelve distinct areas, namely the White Garden, Garden of Paradise, Vegetable Potager, Partierre Garden, Aromatic Herb Garden, Vine Walk, Walled Garden, Garden of Reflection, Pool Garden, Timber Lime Walk, Wild Garden, and the Stream Garden, each with its own design and unique characteristics, but all equally enchanting.

Stellenberg Gardens – 30 Oak Avenue Kenilworth

Open to the public – Saturday 21st & 22nd November 2015

Proceeds in aid of St Joseph’s Home for Chronically ill Children

Entrance Fee: R50.00

Teas: R35

Children under adult supervision only.

No pets or picnics allowed

Contact: 083 300 1196 for more information

Seed Saving

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food, gardening, green tips, Heirloom plant, home grown, Kitchen garden, organic, plants, pollination, Seed, seed saving, Western Cape

Saving for Seed

It is now just after mid Summer here in the Western Cape. The temperatures are soaring and the South Easter is taking up what little moisture there is left in the soil.

My vegetable garden has literally bolted in this weather. Now it is time to prepare to save seed for next year’s bounty.

Coriander

Carrot

Poppies

Fennel

Giant Leeks

Giant Leeks

Buds on Giant Leeks

Calendula

 

Only seeds from open-pollinated, not hybrid, plants will produce the same crop next year. (The packet that the seeds came from will tell you whether the variety is open-pollinated or hybrid.) And, except for tomatoes, the plants shouldn’t be cross-pollinated by insects (which would happen if several varieties grew in the same area). Such saved seeds might grow into something that resembles the parent, or something tough and tasteless.

Tomatoes are self-pollinating. So if you avoid hybrid varieties, you’ll be able to grow the same tomato next year from seeds you save this year—even if different varieties were grown close together. That’s not the case with peppers and eggplants. Their flowers can be cross-pollinated by insects, so different varieties of these must be separated by 500 feet for the seeds to be pure.

Saving Seeds for next season

Related articles

• Pollination (honeybeesapp.wordpress.com)
• So what’s with heirloom? (growingmagnolia.wordpress.com)

 

Kitty Hawk

Tags

Africa, Cape Town, Epiphyllum, Flowers, garden, green cathedral, Kitty Hawk, orchid cactus, South Africa, Stanford, succulent, The Green Cathedral, Western Cape

Kitty Hawk

I purchased this Orchid Cactus Kitty Hawk from The Green Cathedral some years ago. She has rewarded me every year with a stunning display.

The name ‘Green Cathedral of South Africa’ is derived from a media publication and, until August 1 2011, used as an alias for ‘Soekershof; Private Mazes & Botanical Gardens in South Africa’; located in the tranquil Klaas Voogds area near the small town of Robertson. Since August 2011 Green Cathedral of South Africa resides in Stanford, Western Cape as does a precious collection of plants.

I dedicated this post to Herman Van Bron who is the custodian of the Green Cathedral.

Kitty Hawk

RELATED ARTICLES :

Orchid Cactus http://aristonorganic.com/2013/11/18/orchid-cactus/

Color on the Mountain

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Africa, Bee, Cape Town, environment, flower, Flowers, Malva, Mesembranthemum, Mesembryanthemum, nature, organic, Pelargonium, plants, South Africa, South African endemic plant, Western Cape

A short distance from my home up the mountain can be found this wonderful eye-catching colour of endemic plants growing wild, surviving sandy soils and harsh wind and full sun.

Pelargonium cucullatum – Wild Malva

Cotula

Mesembranthemum

Watsonia

Carpets of Mesembranthemum

The Wild Malva (Pelargonium cucullatum) is growing profusely.  When crushed the leaves of some forms emit a strong, sweet scent.  The flowers are faintly scented. Sunbirds, butterflies, long-beaked flies and moths have all been observed visiting the flowers.

Traditionally this pelargonium was used medicinally to cure colic, kidney ailments, diarrhoea, coughs and fevers. The leaves were used as a poultice for bruises, stings and abscesses. In the nineteenth century it was used as a hedge-row ornamental in Cape Town. It is also useful as a cut flower as the branches last for many weeks in water.

Vygies –  Mesembryanthemum (meaning “midday flowering”) is a genus of flowering plants native to southern Africa. Thriving in hot conditions, Mesembryanthemum creates a  ‘Magic Carpet’ and simply loves poor, dry soils where most other plants would fail.

Brass Buttons (Cotula). Annual herb growing up to 30 cm high, with finely divided leaves, with white or yellow rays and a yellow disc. Native to South Africa (Western Cape and Eastern Cape) where it is found in sandy and disturbed places.

Watsonia borbonica is magnificent will tall spikes of “Pink” flowers. Watsonia borbonica is pollinated by large, solitary bees, mainly of the family Apidae: subfamily Anthophorinae. The bees visit the flowers in the early morning, seeking nectar and collecting pollen from flowers that have just opened. The styles of the flowers only unfurl later on their second day and become receptive, and at the same time the nectar levels rise. The bees visiting for the nectar transfer some of the pollen collected earlier from the freshly opened flowers. By noon there is no more nectar or pollen and the bees move away. Goldlatt 1989 and John Manning (pers.comm)

 

 

Related articles

• Understanding the Role of the Worker Bee in a Hive (adoptahive.wordpress.com)
• O B (aristonorganic.com)

 

Earthworm Giants and Padloopers

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Africa, earth, Earthworm, environment, geometric tortoise, giant earthworms, Karoo, nature, South Africa, Tortoise, Western Cape

Driving through the Karoo during a huge thunderstorm can be an amazing experience. From encountering the  Cape Karoo Tortoise  which is known as the “Great Padloper” or experiencing these Giant Earthworms.

Giant two-meter earthworms rear up out of their burrows and find a road to cross. Startled motorists spot them more often than scientists.

South Africa has the largest earthworm ever found, according to the international Worm Digest digital archives.

The tortoise is a terrestrial (land-dwelling) reptile and the world is home to a total of about 43 species, with adults ranging in size from about 10 centimeters to one metre. South Africa has 13 species of tortoise and eight are found in the Western Cape alone.

This makes the Western Cape an international tortoise hotspot, because on less than one percent of the earth’s surface, we find almost a quarter of all known species, and there is even an endemic (a species found nowhere else on earth) named the geometric tortoise.

Save Our Tortoises

 

The Blue Marguerite

Tags

Africa, blue marguerite, Cape Town, companion plants, Felicia amelliodes, flower spider, flying insects, Marguerite, Pollen, pollen grains, Provinces, sandy soils, South Africa, Western Cape

The Blue Marguerite (Felicia Ameliodes) is an eye catching indigenous edition to any garden here in the Western Cape. It flowers most of the year, and reseeds itself all over the garden. The seedlings are easily harvested and transplanted to where they are needed.

It is extremely water-wise and tolerates the Western Cape winds. It is hardy, long flowering, and even frost resistant and needs only moderate care, thriving in sandy soils.

• Good companion plants include Scabiosa africana , S. “Blue Butterfly” S. “Pink Mist”, variousHelichrysium species, Agapanthus species and cultivars, and Bulbine frutescense.

Ecology
Felicias are visited by bees and small flying insects, such as wasps and butterflies. They also have tiny thrips running around the florets, usually carrying pollen grains on their bodies. Sometimes a bright yellow ‘flower’ spider lurks in the daisy’s center, matching the disc florets perfectly. Whatever animal achieves pollination, it is generally very successful as full heads of seed are the norm.

 Felicia amelloides can be seen on one of our South African stamps.

It has begun

Tags

biodiversity, bitterbossie, Chirona, environment, Erica, floral, floral kingdoms, fynbos, fynbos biome, garden, Helichrysum, Metalasia, nature, organic, plants, protea, secret season, South African endemic plant, Table Mountain, vascular plant species, Western Cape, wild flowers, world heritage site

After the good rains we have had this past week, the Table mountain has started to come alive. This time of the year is always known as “The Secret Season” here in the Western Cape floral kingdom.

The Cape Floristic Region, the smallest of the six recognised floral kingdoms of the world, is an area of extraordinarily high diversity and endemism, and is home to more than 9 000 vascular plant species, of which 69 percent are endemic. Much of this diversity is associated with the fynbos biome, a Mediterranean-type, fire-prone shrubland. The economical worth of fynbos biodiversity, based on harvests of fynbos products (e.g.wildflowers) and eco-tourism, is estimated to be in the region of R77 million a year. Thus, it is clear that the Cape Floristic Region has both economic and intrinsic biological value as a biodiversity hotspot.

Table Mountain National Park is a World Heritage site since 2004.

A short stroll up the mountain confirmed that the “Secret Season” has begun.

Chirona baccifera or “Bitterbossie” (Afrikaans) full of medicinal berries.

Erica abietina starting to flower

 

Erica plukentii is a favourite with the Sunbirds

 

The Metalsia muricata full of  honey smelling white flowers, making the mountain Silver in the late afternoon light.

The Tortoise Berry or Nylandtia Spinosa  giving a beautiful purple guile to its thorns

The Black Bearded Sugar bush Protea (Protea lepiocarpodendron), so soft and velvety.

The oleander leaf protea (Protea neriifolia) often known as  baardsuikerbos presumably because it looks as if it has a beard.

The Cape Dwarf

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Cape Dwarf Chameleon, Cape Town, dwarf chameleon, electric fences, environment, little creatures, nature, ovoviviparous, photography, province of the western cape, reptile, south african province, Western Cape

The Cape dwarf chameleon (Bradypodion pumilum), is a chameleon native to the South African province of the Western Cape, where it is restricted to the region around Cape Town. As with most chameleons, its tongue is twice the length of its body and it can be shot out of its mouth using a special muscle in the jaw. This gives the chameleon the ability to catch insects some distance away.

The Cape dwarf chameleon is known to grow over 15 cm (5.9 in) in length, including the tail, with males and females reaching similar adult sizes. They are ovoviviparous, but examination in controlled captivity has shown the very soft egg-like membrane around the young is discarded immediately on birth. The young resemble miniature versions of the adults, with muted colours, and typically reach no more than 2 cm in length at birth. Adults can vary quite significantly in colour variety, saturation and pattern, some appearing much more vibrant than others. The tail is prehensile, and the feet are well evolved to grasping twigs, with minute claws on the end which improve grip.

These darling little creatures are disappearing from our gardens at an alarming rate, thank fully I still have some in my garden. Often in my travels I find them roasted on electric fences.