Beez Neez now Chy Whella - Kirstenbosch Garden

Kirstenbosch Garden - Part 3

Beez Neez now Chy Whella

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Mon 13 Jan 2020 23:37

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden – Part Three

After our delicious lunch we bimbled on.

OK so I am back to agapanthus but these are rather special and the growing instructions will come in handy – not interested ??? leave this bit and head to the next picture.

Far from home: This striking agapanthus is a cultivar of Agapanthus inapertus subspecies pendulus called ‘Graskop’ after the town in Mpumalanga nearby where it was collected by Kirstenbosch horticulturists in 1937. This species can be seen growing wild in the grasslands in this area. Unlike the evergreen agapanthus, the Graskop is deciduous, losing its leaves in autumn and going dormant during winter.

There are four deciduous species that come from the Eastern Cape, Swaziland, Free State, Lesotho, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Mozambique:- companalatus – Bell agapanthus, caulescens – Stem agapanthus, coddii – Waterberg agapanthus, inapertus – Drooping agapanthus and many different forms, cultivars and hybrids.

You can see many of them growing here at Kirstenbosch, and can tell them apart from the more well-known evergreen ones because: they tend to flower later in the season, often have drooping flowers, are often dark blue and their leaves are often in fans not mounds.

Quite easy to grow: The Graskop agapanthus is easy to grow but requires more water and fertiliser than the more commonly cultivated evergreen agapanthus. Plant Graskop, and other deciduous agapanthus in a sunny position, in well-drained soil. Water abundantly during the spring and summer and feed generously if your soil is poor. They are also suitable for containers and can tolerate water during the winter provided the soil is well-drained.

The deciduous agapanthus are more hardy in cold climates, making them ideal for cold frost gardens that struggle to grow the ‘normal’ evergreens agapanthus. They can withstand sub zero temperatures for short periods but are not hardy to prolonged periods below freezing temperatures without some form of protection (I know how they feel....).

We crossed this lawn and beyond were attracted to big, white blobs.

King of the Fynbos and South Africa’ National Flower, here I go again.......Protea cynaroides guess who stopped at the shop on the way in and is sporting three different protea seed packets and one of the Paradise Flower. I’ll be handing them over at the end of June to Uncle Les ‘to get them started for me’. If they fail then it won’t be for the lack of expert growing hands. I feel sure that Aunty Pat and cousin Vicki will help with the watering and Bertie will give them a good sniff or two. Tree-Artichoke from Table Mountain was how the King Protea was described by botanists in the 1700s. Its Latin name cynaroides means ‘like the Globe Artichoke, Cynara scalymus.’ They may look a bit alike but they are not related, the Globe Artichoke is a kind of thistle and belongs to the Daisy Family (Asterracaea). And the King Protea will not taste very nice, even seasoned with garlic (yuck) and olive oil and dipped in butter.

The King Protea is endemic to the Western and Eastern Cape. They grow wild in the mountains from the Cederberg to Grahamstown, including Table Mountain. The King Protea is one of the easiest to grow (good to know) and it does well in large containers.

A bowl full of flowers: The King Protea flowers mainly during the Cape’s rainy season, in autumn, winter and spring (May – Oct). A protea flower is not a flower but a flower head. It is many small flowers massed together inside a bowl of pointy pink ‘petals’ (which are not true petals but modified leaves called floral bracts). Each little flower has an upright, stick-like style and thread-like petals, which lie in the base of the bowl when the flowers open. The flowers are rich in nectar. People used to collect the nectar, boil it until it turned syrupy and used it like sugar. This is why proteas are also known as suikerbos (sounds like say-ker-boss, and means sugar bush) and suikerkan (say-ker-kun, meaning sugar tin).

King Proteas are pollinated by birds that feed on nectar. In Kirstenbosch you will see the Sugarbird (Promerops cafer). which has a distinctive long tail, and brightly coloured sunbirds. Now these may be a problem for Uncle Les in Buith Wells and me when they get to Plymouth but I’m sure we will think of something, paintbrush comes to mind, give it a good wiggle and waggle it on the next flower head.....

On we went in search of the pond.

Ducks, we may be getting warmer......

We found the pond and enjoyed the feathery rushes.

At the far end we could see some chaps having a bath.

All went well until someone stole the soap and then there was an almighty kerfuffle.

Onlookers bemused as on it went.

Eventually, the baddie was severely ducked in front of his wife, banished from the pond and refused to face the camera.....

As we prepared to leave the main garden in search of the Hothouse, I saw this little lady having an afternoon rest. As she is fairly monochrome I put Bear in black and white next to a wonderful, dense wall covering – such a shame the wallflowers were not in full bloom but it’s not their season. Another wistful thought for our garden.........