Summer has ended and we have been tipped into a strange season which does not have the usual attractions of autumn. On the last day of February and again on the 11th March we had some rain which promised the greening of autumn, but after that the winds blew and no further rain fell and everything just seems to be hanging in there. The days are definitely shorter though with the sun rising at 7:40am and setting at about 6:10pm at the equinox. The sun is moving northwards quickly now and it set directly behind the highest point of the western mountains at the equinox.

Fruits of autumn

The Hanepoot grapes were disappointing this year. They are usually at their best in February but were a bit late this year. The rains caused many of them to rot. These grapes, the remnants of the old vineyard which covered the whole farm, are sweet and delicious. They are a very old variety, Muscat d’Alexandrie, planted worldwide and one of the earliest grapes to be grown at the Cape. Here they are highly esteemed as a table grape and used to make fortified Hanepoot desert wine. Sadly very few new plantings are being made here I am told.

The quinces ripen in March. One of the real delights of KSU is an old quince boundary hedge which bears tasty if misshapen and sometimes stung fruit every year. This old hedge receives no water or feeding, but gives us enough fruit to share with friends and to enjoy in a variety of ways. Quinces are tasty cooked with lamb or pork. In this part of the country many housewives bottle them to serve as a side dish with meat. I make quince jelly and cotignac or quince paste which is delicious. It is tricky to make as the thick sugary paste spits as it boils and one needs to cover the pot with a mesh and to wear gloves and use a long wooden spoon to stir the paste. It is prone to catching/ burning at the bottom of the pot, so one has to keep stirring until it is ready to set. Once dried in the sun, cotignac will keep for a long time and can be enjoyed as an after dinner treat or served with the cheeseboard.

Persimmons also ripen in March. Gorgeous golden red balls of sweetness, there is nothing to do with them but to eat them fresh and as fast as possible or the mousebirds will beat you to it. While they are still firm they can be peeled and added to salads.

The first time I ever saw a persimmon tree was in November in Venice. The tree had no leaves, just beautiful orange fruits glowing against an old building and a blue sky. I was entranced and determined to find and grow a persimmon. Here at the Cape the trees still have leaves when the fruit ripens so they are not as visually spectacular, but the glossy green leaves do turn yellow and red before falling making for a very attractive garden tree.

Other unusual fruits that ripen now in March are cherry guavas and citrons. I have 2 small red cherry guava bushes. The fruits are about the size and colour of a cherry and taste a bit like a guava – one can see where the common name comes from. There is another variety which has greeny yellow slightly larger fruit, but I don’t have it. At KSU the bushes remain less than a metre in height and it may be due to our colder winters. I have seen much bigger bushes in Cape Town.

Citrons are another of those heritage fruits which can be found on some old Cape farms. Members of the citrus family the fruits have hardly any flesh. The large round fruits were made into a preserves or used for candied peel. I have 2 kinds; one with large spherical fruits with flatten bottoms and 1 with a strangely misshapen fruit where the segments separate. It is known as a Buddha’s hand citron and is of Asian origin. Both have a long lasting citrus aroma and can perfume a room. Citrons were the earliest citrus trees to be cultivated in the Middle East and are part of the Jewish festival of Suchot.

Autumn bulbs

March lilies (Amaryllis belladonna) are one of the joys of late summer. Indigenous to the Cape, these bulbs send up their flower spikes from the bare ground any time from late January, but here at KSU they only appeared in March and it was a very poor showing this year with only two flower heads. I am worried that the moles might have eat lots of the bulbs although they are very poisonous. They have a lovely scent and despite the common name are not lilies but part of the large Amaryllidaceae family. Once the winter rains come the leaves should appear and I can see how many bulbs I have left.

Nerine sarniensis is another gorgeous native autumn bulb. We grow ours in a pot and every year we have the great pleasure of their scarlet flowers which appear to be covered in gold glitter in the sunlight. This is another bulb which flowers while the leaves are dormant. This is also a member of the Amaryllidaceae and has the strange common name of Guernsey or Jersey lily. Sarnia was the Roman name for Guernsey and when this bulb was named it was thought to come from there. There are several other nerines that flower in autumn which I would love to grow, but none can compare to this.

Brugsvigia bosmaniae is another beautiful amaryllid with candlebras of pink flowers. Usually one has to travel to Niewoudtville to see the spectacular display these bulbs make in the veld after autumn rains, but this year I was stunned to find a hillside of them flowering nearby in the Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden in Worcester. What a sight!

Cape honeysuckles

Oranges, reds, yellows and pinks, what a kaleidoscope of bright autumn colours this shrub offers. Often taken for granted here at the Cape as it is so easy to grow, these plants signal autumn at KSU. Tecomaria capensis is not a member of the honeysuckle family, but is a great favourite with sunbirds. They can flower all summer long if they are well watered, but here we have the main flourish in March after the first autumn rains. I have collected 7 different colour forms; a dark red, very robust shrub whose leaves are a dark green; a bright clear orange which is the most common form of Cape honeysuckle and which I remember from hedges of my childhood in the Eastern Cape; a cross between these two which is orange red with markings inside the petals; a clear lemon yellow; a warmer golden butter yellow; a pink form and lastly a pale biscuit tan which is probably closely related to the pink form as they both have a tendency to walk /spread. The common combination of orange tecomaria with blue and white plumbago reminds me of the colours of the old South African flag.

Other stars of March

I wish I had shade to grow more Plectranthus. Anyone visiting Kirstenbosch in March will admire them grown en masse. They are great native plants for autumn. Here at KSU I have a few species grown as nursery stock in the hopes I can grow more one day. They are very easy to propagate from slips and I dream of a shady border of blue, pink and white P. ecklonii. Meanwhile I enjoy my few plants of the blue form.

Flowering in March this year is Aloe greenii. Is it a forerunner of winter aloes, or should it have flowered earlier? This aloe has a tall spike of subtle pink flowers which shoots up almost overnight from a rosette of speckled leaves. It is an easy aloe to grow and at KSU it grows next to an Australian wattle with grey leaves which provide a foil for the pink flowers and a little afternoon shade which it likes. Sunbirds also love this aloe and the flash of turquoise against the pink is lovely. A big bed of them would be a fine thing, but I only have 1 plant.

Lastly a favourite that has been flowering most of the summer and is an anathema to most people, Morning glory. How can anyone not admire these glorious blue flowers, thuggish though they may be?

March 2019 Gallery

Although February is traditionally regarded as the hottest month at the Cape, it doesn’t seem to be the case here at KSU. I think it may have to do with the shape of the mountain ranges to the east and west of us. The mountains to the east are much closer and can delay sunrise by an hour or more, but they taper away to the south, so the midsummer sun in Nov/ Dec rises comparatively early at about 5:30 am. However the range rises steeply to peaks which delay sunrise as we move towards the equinox. The sun in February is now rising well after 7am.

The same occurs on the west. The gap in the mountains formed by Bainskloof is directly opposite the house and this is where the sun sets in midsummer after 8pm. The range rises gently to the north and now sunset is around 7pm. Thus the mountain profiles shorten the hours the sun beats down in February compared to December.

The days and nights nevertheless are still hot and we have had no rain this month except for 3ml on the 2nd Feb. Plants are starting to look stressed and long for autumn rain. The south-easter has also blown almost all month. Although this cools and makes the heat bearable, it also desiccates. The air is often hazy with dust and smoke, but this is a month of plenty harvest-wise.

Figs & Grapes

Farmers around me grow wine grapes and the harvest has started. When I first came to KSU the grapes were harvested by hand, but within the last 5 years all farmers have acquired tall harvesting machines which straddle the rows – great behemoths with big headlights in the sky, scary to meet on the road before daylight. Roads are busy with tractors dragging trailers full of grapes to the co-ops. The trailers tilt to tip out the grapes once the load has been weighed then back race the tractors for another load.

Grapes

My garden has been developed on an old Hanepoot vineyard. Some of the old vines are still in the garden and the grapes ripen towards the end of the month. First to ripen are the tiny black seedy Jacques grapes. Pronounced Yak-kay locally, Jacques was an old rootstock, no longer used. The grapes I look forward to are the Catawba grapes. This is an American grape which has a particular musky flavour, not admired by everyone, but addictive to those who like it. The skins are firm and the flavour only develops when the grapes are completely ripe. When I lived in Cape Town I had a vine which grew amazingly well, but the 3 vines I grew from cuttings and planted on a pergola here struggle a bit. They bear well though and grapes make delicious jelly which is especially nice mixed into plain Greek yoghurt.

Figs

February is fig time. They ripen faster than we can pick them and the mouse birds are having a great time. First to ripen is the little Cape brown fig, a firm little fig which makes a tasty bite. This year the big purple Adam fig starting ripening at almost the same time. These are luscious figs with a deep red centres. Lastly come the tiger figs, with green and yellow stripes these figs are also red inside and are very sweet making them my mom’s favourite fig. The strong winds blew down and broke a big branch this year just as the fruit was ripening.

Figs don’t keep and are best eaten straight off the tree. One of the rewards for watering the garden is making frequent forays to the figs trees for sustaining snacks! I have friends who enjoy fresh figs too so lots get given away. Some get cut up and covered with brown sugar or honey and port and popped in the oven to bake and then enjoyed either warm or cold with Greek yoghurt- a very easy and delicious dessert. Some get made into jam. I find plain fig jam is not always a success and this year I have mixed them with Kei apples to add a bit of acid and pectin and I think the results are yummy. Best of all is sandkorrel konfyt. Mrs Olive Niewoudt of the Cedarberg shared her recipe with me many years ago. This jam is a mixture of fig, hanepoot grapes and watermelon rind. It is tricky to make, but absolutely delicious when you get it right. The famous green fig preserve is made in spring from young green figs, not now in late summer.

Pomegranates and prickly pears

Pomegranates are also ripening now. It is great to see that this ancient fruit is back in fashion. It is one of my favourite trees as you can see from the banner of this site, and I have one growing just off the stoep. In spring the new leaves are a lovely bronze, then come the bright orange flowers and the bright green leaves. It is lovely to watch the beautifully shaped little fruits swell and ripen and then split to reveal the jewel-like red pips. When the chilly nights come the leaves turn yellow before falling and let the sun through to warm us on winter afternoons. I have also planted some pomegranate hedges. We eat the fruits and some years I try making pomegranate molasses, but it takes lots of pips to get a little bottle.

Prickly pears (Opuntia sp.) take me back to my childhood growing up in the Eastern Cape. My father would peel lots and chill them in the fridge for breakfast. It is still the way we enjoy them. When I bought KSU there were several old plants on the boundaries. Some are massive. The tastiest form has yellow flowers, lots of prickles and orange flesh. The one with less prickles has paler fruit which is less tasty. Safely picking and peeling prickly pears is an art to cultivate as the tiny prickly hairs are fiendish.

Pretty barrier plants

Aside from Kei apples (Dovyalis caffra)which I wrote about last month and prickly pears, two other prickly tough plants which can be grown as barrier shrubs are carissas and durantas. Both are long flowering and are still looking good in February.

Amatungula, num-num or Natal plum (Carissa macrocarpa) is full of fruit now and still has a few flowers. The fruits are quite tasty and I believe make a good jelly, but I have not tried yet. It is native to the eastern coastal parts of the country and I have been surprised that it grows quite well here but is not as tall as in coastal areas. The large scented single white flowers are followed by bright red, oval fruits about the size of a prune.

Carissa edulis has much smaller black round fruits, and smaller tubular flower which come in clusters like spring jasmine. The shrub has been flowering on and off all summer. The scent is heavenly, the buds and flower tubes are red pink which contrasts beautifully with the starry white flowers. The long spines are vicious. It comes from the bushveld and further north in Africa and does well here.

I have two duranta bushes, but may acquire more as they are tough shrubs requiring very little water when established, real stalwarts for summer. They come from Mexico and South America and are sometimes called golden dewdrops. One of mine has variegated leaves with a silvery gold edging and pale blue flowers. The other is the real beauty with darker violet blue flowers which are edged with white. I think it is the cultivar called Sapphire showers. The flowers are faintly sweetly scented and cover the large shrub all summer. Both shrubs also have golden berries now.

Stars of February

With elegant, pale pink lily like, scented flowers, Crinum moorei has been a treat all month. The flowers remind me of ballerinas in Giselle. Sometimes called the Natal lily, this member of the Amaryllis family has big bulbs and prefers shade. Mine are growing in a big pot under a tree and have survived considerable neglect. Their scent is stronger at night making them a good choice for a shady courtyard.

Another pale pink beauty flowering for weeks from mid to late summer is Barleria greenii. This likes some sun and also comes from KZN and I read that it is also scented at night. It is critically endangered in the wild. A bushy perennial with big (for a barleria) delicate flowers, it has prickly leaves. My single plant has survived in the garden for many years, but I must try to propagate more as it is out of its comfort zone here. I do prune it back a bit each winter and wait anxiously to see if it will shoot in spring. I also water it weekly in summer.

Much tougher and brighter is Crassula perfoliata var. falcata which is also a February star at KSU. This is a succulent from the Eastern Cape with attractive grey stems of grey sickle shaped leaves which complement the big heads of tiny bright red flowers. Easy to propagate from cuttings, I have a few plants in the rockery and have noticed that those which get afternoon shade do best. There seems to be some confusion about the name of this plant.

Even bigger and brighter is the firewheel tree, Stenocarpus sinuatus, from tropical rain forests of Australia. I have been amazed that it has grown and flowered here, but it is a member of the protea family and I think must like the acid soil. The flowers are like bright red, spidery catherine wheels and the seedpods an elegant pale green. It has very handsome glossy dark green leaves too which make it attractive all year round.

And lastly let us not forget the humble petunia, a pot of them have been flowering beside the front steps all summer long, a daily star.