This exotic tree is popular in South Africa but is no longer allowed to be planted here. This one flowering in Ladismith, Little Karoo.
Tag Archives: Spring
It’s Jacaranda season !
You know it’s going to rain when these cacti flower.
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
Today John the farmer is harvesting broad beans.
Fava beans can be stored frozen. Splice them in half, then remove the tough skin.
Boil rapidly for about a minute so they turn dark green.
Plunge them into iced water. Drain.
Pat them dry, then freeze !
Posted in ORGANIC PRODUCE
Tagged Organic produce, Recipes, Slow food, Spring, Sustainable, vegetables
Happy Spring equinox !
You know spring has sprung when the Lampranthus are flowering..
Posted in FEATURED PLANTS
Tagged flowers, Indigenous plants, Plants, Spring, Succulents
Helichrysum cymosum – Feature plant at Towerkop Nursery.
Helichrysum cymosumÂ
Related to everlastings, this perrenial shrub volunteered on the allotment at Towerkop nursery. It grows to a metre high and flowers profusely from spring well into summer.
Occurs naturally on sandy slopes in damp places from the southwestern cape to Mpumalanga.
Posted in FEATURED PLANTS
Tagged Africa, flowers, Medicinal plants, Plants, Spring, water-wise
Euphorbia caput-medusae (Medusa’s head). Featured plant at Towerkop nursery.
Sprawling succulent shrublet with a rosette of warty club shaped branches arising from a short thick stem (caudex). Endemic near Cape town, South Africa found in deep sand and on rocky outcrops.
“Euphorbias are characterized by their milky latex. Stipules are usually present, often modified into prickles and spines.
Many species produce peduncles (inflorescent stalks) which persist after the cyathia (cup-shaped structures) and capsules have withered.
In some species these persistent peduncles become sharpened at the tip and become true spines.
The individual flowers, set within a cyathium, which is the basic unit of the inflorescence of euphorbia, are surrounded by a number of bracts which form a unique floral envelope or involucre.
The flowers are unisexual with the male flower reduced to a single stamen on it’s own pedicel.
Curiously there is never more than one female flower in a cyathium, whereas the male flowers are always numerous.
Capsules usually consist of three cells. the cells seperate at maturity from a persistent axis, often freeing the seed with great force.”
Four new duckies on the farm.
Four new ducklings on the farm
Spring daisies in bloom at Towerkop Nursery.
Posted in FEATURED PLANTS
Tagged Africa, flowers, herbs, Horticulture, organic, Spring
Towerkop Nursery 