Natal Lily, with it’s lush, broad leaves loves growing in dappled shade. Flowers appear once these bulbs reach maturity after a few years and the leaves die down after flowering in drier areas.
Tag Archives: Africa
Crinum moorei. Featured plant at Towerkop Nursery.
Karoo gold (Rhigozum) flowering now in its natural habitat.
This spiney shrub blends in with the karoo scrub until it blooms profusely in the summer with bright yellow flowers, dotting the veld like bright gold nuggets.
Posted in ALL
Tagged Africa, flowers, Horticulture, Indigenous plants, Trees, water-wise
My Amaryllis flowered ! (Hippeastrum reginae).
This South African cultivar sends out leaves and scape at the same time after a season of vegetative growth. It can be grown in a pot or in the ground and it’s long lasting blooms are prized as cut flowers. They thrive when transplanted every few years.
Posted in ALL
Tagged Africa, flowers, Horticulture, Indigenous plants, Plants, Spring
Kei apple, Dovyalis caffra. Featured tree at Towerkop Nursery.
Bonsai of the kei apple. An evergreen tree up to about 3-5 m in nature. Native to South africa. Bears yellow fruit which is edible if not somewhat tart. Grown as a hedge it forms an impenetrable barrier because of it’s fierce thorns.
Birds subsequently build nests in it’s protective thicket of thorns.
The Wilde dagga, Leonotus ocymifolia, attracts sunbirds to the allotment.
I managed to finally capture the Malachite sunbird feeding .
The plant is used medicinally for the symptomatic treatment of coughs in acute bronchial disease, high blood preasure, headaches, asthma and viral hepatitis.
Today John the farmer is doing Hugelkultur !
Hugelkultur or hill culture is simply growing what you want on hills or mounds created out of rough biomass to improve the soil, increase drainage and at the same time prevent the soil from drying out.
I added a galvanized wire mesh tube or cylinder which i plan to use as a trellis for climbing plants.
The middle of the tube will filled with garden clippings, kitchen waste and leaves to create a ‘wormhole’.
The wormhole will concentrate earthworm activity from where they will spread out to the rest of the mound.
I must say this Hugelkultur method really works ! Three months later and all the veggies I put into the mound are reaady for harvest..The beans that I sowed must still climb the trellis but I am ready to replace most of the veggies with the summer seedlings.
Posted in ORGANIC PRODUCE
Tagged Africa, Bio-degradable, Eco-friendly, organic, Organic farming, Organic produce, Sustainable
My Strelitzia is flowering! Strelitzia reginae, featured plant at Towerkop Nursery.
Bird of paradise, Strelitzia is a close relative of the banana. The striking flowers of this species are evolved to attract bird pollinators.Birds also eat and disperse the seeds. The cut flowers are popular. This stemless perennial are native to South Africa and occurs in coastal areas in well drained soil along forest margins.
Seeds with their orange wooly arils.
Posted in FEATURED PLANTS
Tagged Africa, flowers, Horticulture, Indigenous plants, Plants
Today John the farmer spotted this on his walk on the mountain.
This Babiana plant is a perennial corm bulb in the Iris family. Apparently favoured by baboons that eat it’s corms (hence babiana), it survives amongst rock crevices on sandstone slopes and flats where it flowers in early spring. Possibly B. ambigua, this one was found growing on the Swartberg mountains in the little Karoo.
Posted in ORGANIC PRODUCE
Tagged Africa, flowers, Horticulture, Indigenous plants, Plants, water-wise
Senecio articulatus. Candle plant/ hotdog plant/ worsies. Featured plant at Towerkop Nursery.
Senecio or Kleinia articularis is a succulent with blue-gray jointed stems resembling a string of sausages hence it’s name hotdog plant or ‘worsies’.
It has ivy shaped leaves that are seen seasonally, otherwise the stems are bare.
They spread and ramble under larger shrubs in the spekboomveld and gwarrieveld of the western cape and eastern cape of South Africa.
Posted in FEATURED PLANTS
Tagged Africa, Horticulture, Indigenous plants, Plants, Succulents, water-wise
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