You know spring has sprung when the Lampranthus are flowering..
Tag Archives: Plants
Happy Spring equinox !
Posted in FEATURED PLANTS
Tagged flowers, Indigenous plants, Plants, Spring, Succulents
Today John the farmer planted up winter seedlings.
Today I am planting up kale, wasabi mustard, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, parsley and spinach for sale at Towerkop Nursery.
Posted in ORGANIC PRODUCE
Tagged herbs, Organic farming, Plants, Sustainable, vegetables
Guild of plants around the young fig tree.
The guild of plants around the young fig tree include tomatoes interplanted with kakibos (Tagetes minuta), wilde dagga (Leonotus ocymifolia), Butternut pumpkin and Aloe ciliaris and jasmine on the trellis.
Daylilies flowering now at Towerkop Nursery.
Although not indigenous to Africa, I am fond of their flowers. they are only open for 1 day, but are quite the show when they appear.
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
Rafnia racemosa flowering after fire.
A veld fire offers an opportunity to see what comes up !
Rafnia racemosa is a woody shrub that shoots up after fire. Leaves are simple, elliptic and greyish-green. Pea-like flowers are yellow, 1-2cm long with a pointed keel tip and triangular calyx lobes, equal in size.
This species occurs in arid protea fynbos, arid renosterveld, waboomveld and sandolienveld in the western cape of South Africa.
Tongue-leafed mesemb. Featured plant at Towerkop Nursery.
Tongue-leafed mesemb, Glottiphyllum longum with seed pods or fruit capsules. this species flowers in autumn in the western cape, little karoo region.
The highly succulent leaves are oblong and slightly flattened. Stems are not normally visible and the plant exhibits clump-forming growth as opposed to trailing.
Very hardy.
Posted in FEATURED PLANTS
Tagged Africa, flowers, Indigenous plants, Medicinal plants, Plants, Succulents
Towerkop Nursery 