dombeya – Kleine Schoone Uitzicht

31st October 201931st October 2019

October 2019

As I write at the end of October we are shivering and the peak of the mountains to the east has a very light dusting of snow. We have had over 50 ml of rain in the past 5 days too, which has helped after the extremely dry early spring. I had been watering everything in the garden, but can hold off now for a week or two.

This month has its beauties in bold shades, but it is also hay fever month. The grass all runs to seed and the syringas flower. Both of these seem to trigger my sneezing. This year we have been lucky to be spared the howling south east wind which often arrives now and we have had some glorious days.

Every Saturday two men who work on the farm next door come to cut grass for me. It is vital that we get it all cut back now as fires are a hazard in summer. It also makes it easier to spot snakes as I wander about watering. Much of the grass is wild oats, but there is also something we call steekgras which has horrible prickly seed-heads which penetrate boots.

Purple glories

October had a dazzling welcome with big bushes of purple pink lampranthus planted by a neighbour flowering down our road. I also have big bush of it on one of the succulent mounds which has survived for about 15 years. There is nothing subtle about this vygie. This is prime time to visit the Karoo Desert Botanical Garden in Worcester as it has an impressive collection of vygies in shades or red, orange, purples and pinks. Take your sunglasses!

Felicia filifolia is also covered with small starry bright mauve purple flowers this month. This is another native plant and occurs widely in South Africa. It also does not need any water in summer. With its fine, light green leaves it is an attractive shrub even when not in flower and can spread to about 2 m x1 m. One has been growing in my garden for about 12 years now and dazzles for about three weeks every spring.

Growing near the Felicia is another stunning shrub, a Pride of Madeira (Echium candicans). With its towering spikes of tiny bright blue flowers and elegant grey leaves this is another joy in October. This shrub also doesn’t need water in summer, but it is fairly short lived and needs replacing every three or four years. Seedling do pop up sometimes when the mother plant dies.

I love poppies and wish I could grow more. The opium poppies self-seed in the veggie garden and open their big purple flowers this month. I like their handsome silver grey leaves and silver pepper pot seed-heads too.

Bougainvilleas also start flowering this month. Growing up the side of my stoep is a bright pink purple bougainvillea which will be a joy all summer long.

Orange and red

I am very fond of pomegranates. They are attractive in almost all seasons and this month they bear their bright orange red flowers which show up brilliantly against their glossy green leaves. Aside from pomegranates which bear fruit, I have two purely decorative forms. One has double bright orange flowers which are fuller than the normal form and the other has striped cream and orange double flowers. I think this form is called ‘Madame Legrelle’ and it is a beauty. I once saw a pomegranate with yellow flowers in a garden in Alice, but unfortunately the cuttings I took did not grow.

The other marvellous combination of red and green this month is the weeping boerboon, (Schotia brachypetala). In my garden this shrub starts its season with beautiful bronze new leaves which turn a fresh light green as the trusses of flowers form close the trunk and branches. My tree is still quite young and small, but is a treat for whole month of October.

Last of the glorious reds is a cactus with large red flowers with almost iridescent purple interiors. I am not sure of the name, but although fleeting this flowering is stunning. A smaller pink and white cactus also flowers now. I must track down the names.

White beauties

As a contrast to the bright colours, Dombeya rotundifolia the wild pear comes covered in trusses of white blossom early in the month. This tree comes from further north in South Africa, but mine has survived for 15 years, with very little summer water. Sadly the flowers turn tan within a week, so the pristine spectacle is short lived, but this little tree has attractive rounded grey green leaves in summer and warrants its place in the garden.

Quite near the Dombeya is a big Leucadendron bush which is also at its best this month. I think it might be L.discolor. It has limey green yellow flowers which last well in the vase

Although they are on the no no list I cannot resist the pink and white orchid-like flowers of Bauhinia variegata and these trees are the glory of the garden now in October. But even more special in my view is the pure white form which has a touch of green to the flowers. These flowers are lightly scented and as beautiful as magnolia blossoms. I planted it near a dense green yellowwood to emphasize the purity and beauty of these exquisite white flowers.

Gardeners are often a little crazy and I have planted 2 fruiting cherries. This climate is too hot for cherries and they are not thriving. If I get 5 cherries it is a lot, but when the little trees bear their pure white flowers, they are beautiful.

Although more cream than white, the olives also flower this month, their small lacy flowers a harbinger of the crop to come.

Scents of October

The garden in early October is pervaded by the scent of syringa, or Persian lilac (Melia azedarach) as it is sometimes called. With trusses of lilac coloured flowers, this is another plant on the no no list and I do diligently remove seedlings, but have left some trees. They are nowhere near as invasive as the wild olives in my garden.

The other gloriously scented plants are the honeysuckles which are especially nice this month. In the rose garden is an enormous bush of European or Belgian honeysuckle ( Lonicera periclymenum) with flowers in shades of cream and pink which looks lovely beside apricot roses. And growing next to our cottage is a huge mass of the climbing cream and white Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica). The former only flowers for about a month now, but the other will flower all summer long. I also have a plant which might be a hybrid between the two.

Another glorious scent in October is that of the common mock orange, (Philadelphus coronarius). The bushes in the rose garden come covered in pure white single flowers enhanced by yellow stamens. There is something virginal about this shrub with its sweetly scented flowers and pale green leaves, but is surprisingly tough, surviving with very little water. I also have a mock orange from Mexico which I got from Peter and Barbara Knox- Shaw. It does not flower as well, but it equally strongly scented.

The orchard is redolent with the scent of real orange blossom in October. Now is the time I make my van der Hum liqueur. The old Cape recipe calls for naartjie peel and a handful of orange blossom which one soaks in brandy with other spices for 40 days.

Roses and Irises

I love old fashioned roses and grow quite a few of them. October is the month when they are at their best and the old rose garden was one of the first gardens I planted when I came to KSU 16 years ago. It is a joy to be there now and to drink in their perfume and admire their subtle colours, but it isn’t that easy to capture the essence of their enchantment in photographs.

In mid October we travelled to Barrydale for a weekend to see the gardens in bloom there. It is a charming little town with some lovely and interesting gardens and it was very nice to see lots of old roses still growing along boundary fences, including a glorious bush of an apricot coloured rose I could not identify. I took some cuttings- ever hopeful.

I also love bearded irises and have a large collection, but sadly they do not do well here. The wretched moles disturb them and we just don’t seem to have enough cold, or enough rain for them. This year very few have flowered. I guess I should move them to fresh ground. There is something so special about their elegant flowers that I continue to hope for a better year.

Louisiana irises do much better. A few years ago I made a shallow pond for my collection of about 10 different varieties. Usually they flower in September, but they have been later this year them. For about a month this little pond looks great.

Tasks and treats in October

October is also the month when the pelargoniums are at their best. Often incorrectly called geraniums my mum and I have made quite a collection of species and garden hybrids. I need to take cuttings now after they have flowered as often lovely cultivars will disappear off the market and cannot be replaced if one loses a plant.

This month I planted my dahlia tubers and hope they do better than last year. I also planted more beans and courgettes, watermelons, butternuts, pumpkins and gem squash for the summer. The asparagus plants have shot up now that we are no longer picking spears and make a waving green forest about a metre high. I hope to pick enough Cape gooseberries to make some jam and we have enjoyed a few artichokes.

The fruit season is about to start and we can buy early peaches and nectarines. Summer is definitely on the way. The swifts and hoopoes are about as are my neighbour’s chicks who spend a lot of time scratching in what remains of the old vineyard.

KSU October 2019 gallery

30th June 20191st July 2019

June 2019

Winter has definitely arrived. The days are short and although it rose at 8:40 on the midwinter solstice, there is no warmth in the sun until after 10 am. Then it is lovely to find a sheltered spot and to bask like a dassie (Hyrax). By 4pm it is getting cool again. The sun set at 5:15pm at the solstice.

Although I have never experienced frost at KSU, winter nights are usually below 10 °C and often down to 3-5°C. The old cottage we live in has no fireplace. The large chimney breast attached to the kitchen had a wood stove in days gone by. Now we use the alcove for storage and rely on heaters for warmth.

Fortunately we have had more rain but often accompanied by gale force winds, but no snow yet. As I write I hear the rain falling on our tin roof and I have a blanket wrapped around my knees. They promise snow and it certainly feels cold enough.

In the garden the tecomarias are still flowering as is the Mexican sage. Lavenders are coming into flower and they look splendid near the Seville oranges which are full of fruit. In the old rose garden, a small shrub which started off with variegated leaves which have reverted to plain green, is full of bright yellow daisy flowers. I think it is a euryops but cannot be sure.

The gales have blown most of the leaves off the trees and the oaks are almost bare, although some have retained drab brown leaves. The syringas, (Melia azedarach) which I should not be growing as they are on the invasive list, make a splendid show with their leaves turning bright yellow before they fall enhancing the yellow berries. I think they will be even more splendid next month when the berries in the leafless tree light up the winter sky. These trees were here when I arrived.

The real joy of the garden is all the green; grass, oxalis and the wild mustard weed with its pale yellow flowers. The birds are celebrating too and the garden is alive with bird song. It is difficult to recall the pale brown of the summer months. Nowhere is this more noticeable than in the veggie patch which yields barrow loads of weeds for the compost heap.

Guavas and Seville oranges

There is little fruit at this time of the year, but we do have a single white guava tree. It is the only guava in the vicinity and the fruit is usually stolen. This year we erected a fence topped with razor wire around it and I harvested one bowl of fruit ( cost R500) before the birds attacked. Sometimes you just cannot win!

We also have 5 Seville orange trees and this year they have borne exceptionally well. They are too bitter to eat, but perfect for making marmalade. That is a lot of marmalade so I have given away as many oranges as possible and taken some to the local padstals (farm stalls) to see if they can sell them.

Marmalade is one of the easiest jams to make. I use an old family recipe which works on the formula 1 fruit:3 water:2 sugar. Wash the fruit and remove any scars from the peel. If waxed, scrub to remove the wax. Cut the fruit up finely, removing pips and the pith between the segments. Take 4 cups of finely chopped fruit to 12 cups of water. Leave overnight to soak. Next day boil for about 45 mins until the fruit is soft and almost half the water has evaporated. Let it cool, then add a bit less than 8 cups of sugar. Boil up again until setting point reached.

In the pond the waterlilies have died back. However the waterblommetjies (Aponogeton distachyos) are flowering, but I haven’t waded in yet to collect any for bredies.

Succulent garden

The most exciting section of the garden in winter are the succulent mounds. It is still too early for the mesembs, but the cotyledons are flowering – not as well this year as in the some years, but they are still very pretty. There are several varieties at KSU. I think they are all forms of Cotyledon orbiculata with different leaf shapes. Four varieties have grey leaves: one is round, the traditional pig’s ear shape with dark red flowers and another with similar leaves but pale pink flowers; another has thin round pencil shaped leaves and paler flowers; the final variety with grey leaves has forked shaped leaves. I also have a variety with green, round leaves and pink flowers. Also in the succulent garden, the wild rosemary bushes are still covered in white blossom.

A splendid feature plant on the original succulent mound is a Kalanchoe beharensis, or elephant’s ear kalanchoe. This large succulent has big grey felted leaves and comes from Madagascar. It has fairly insignificant heads of pale pink flowers now in winter. Each year it grows a bit taller and its branches are marked with the scars of fallen leaves. It struggles a bit in our dry summers and requires water occasionally.

Euphorbias

I like euphorbias. They come in all shapes and sizes. One of the most splendid flowers now in winter, the poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) from Mexico, but grown the world over. Once it was very common to see the big bright red bracts of this shrub flowering in winter, but now they are only found in old fashioned gardens and impossible to buy from nurseries. They only sell the dwarf pot plant form. I will need to beg some cuttings in spring. I do have the limey yellow form however, growing near a maroon caster oil bush and it is delight at this time of year.

In KZN I have seen one with twisted red bracts called the Ramshorn poinsettia which is very eye catching. Many years back local nurseries were also selling a salmon pink form of the standard shape, but it has also vanished from nursery stocks. If the cold has caused the leaves to fall at flowering time, so much the better.

Another euphorbia which I have only had for about a year, but which is slowly growing on a succulent mound is the Firesticks form of E.tirucalli, the rubber hedge euphorbia. This is currently a very fashionable plant, used extensively in landscaping. The normally green stems are bright orange in the top half of the plant. It doesn’t seem quite as tough as the original green form, but this is normal for sports which have less chlorophyll. I look forward to the increased display as the plant grows and becomes a feature of the mound both in summer and winter.

Lastly I have been admiring Euphorbia mauritanica, sometimes called the yellow or pencil milkbush because of its thin cylindrical stems. This is a common plant in the strandveld and succulent karoo and elsewhere in South Africa, but not always available in nurseries. All summer long its bare stems have formed a mound in front of a tall cypress and beside the spekboom hedge, now the bright green leaves are sprouting. I look forward to its yellow flowers in spring before the leaves fall as summer comes. I very much enjoy the contrast of the 3 green plants together.

Big brother, the naboom, Euphorbia ingens, which looks like a cactus grows fairly close by. These last 2 euphorbias never get a drop of water in summer, but the others do. All euphorbias are poisonous and have milky latex which is an irritant. They must be handled with care. There are several other species at KSU.

In the pink

At the edge of the old rose garden is a large bush of Hibiscus mutabilis that is still flowering. This does not flourish at KSU and only comes into its own in autumn with the rain. I grew it from a slip from the tree which for many years grew at Rosebank station. I am not sure if it is still there. It is an intriguing plant with flowers that change colour, starting out white and turning pink.

In the Arderne garden in Claremont there are/were big bushes of a double form which is even more lovely. I have a plant of this, but it is really struggling and needs far more water than I can provide. It is known as the Confederate rose as it does so well in the SE of the USA, although it hails from China.

Other beauties from China are the camellias. I wish I could say they thrive here and they should as my neighbours have large bushes and the soil is very acid, but mine struggle and I have lost many of my treasured plants. I fear I will have to plant them all in pots if they are to survive. One has obliged with a beautiful pink flower.

Last of the pinks is a dombeya. This big bush grows down near the pond and struggles a bit in the summer, but survives with minimal water. The leaves and flowers are now being battered by the gales, but nevertheless the big hanging heads of pink flowers are a joy. I am not sure of the species, but I grew it from a slip from a huge bush which grows outside the old offices at Kirstenbosch. I think it might be the hybrid called Dombeya x cayeuxii.

To end I want to celebrate Aloe arborescens, the only aloe to survive the mysterious enemy which ate all the buds off my other aloes. Here on the boundary fence they are the iconic winter image of KSU- only the snow on the mountain tops is missing- hopefully along with the peas I will be able to write about that next month.