In a race against the very early onset of winter this year, we have been busy dividing, moving and potting up for the next season – including dealing with the ancient agapanthus clumps on the sidewalk. (I hope you enjoyed the hilarious Geraldine Hickey skit on that topic in our March newsletter as much as I did.)

As we tackled the challenging but unavoidable garden task of splitting perennials, I remembered the so-called “two fork method.” This essentially involves inserting two forks back-to-back through the centre of the plant and then teasing it apart. Sounds fairly straightforward, doesn’t it? However, it assumes not only that you own two garden forks, but that you have the strength and agility to push them in opposite directions simultaneously – and that you are able to keep your head out of the way of the fork handles if the roots of the plant suddenly break up.

In an article for a 2009 issue of SA Garden & Home, I proposed the less taxing method of washing the roots, wiggling off the loose bits, and using a blunt cook’s knife to split the plant into smaller fans. I have always found that cheap supermarket knives work like a dream for such garden chores.

 

IN THE GARDEN

Winter seemed to arrive overnight here in Gauteng – and a very cold one it is, too! As we pull out winter duvets, extra blankets, vests and leggings, many plants are dropping their leaves and moving into the winter rest. Fortunately, there are others which come into their own at this time of year, and our front garden is a veritable winter wonderland.

The Dombeya wallachi and Strobilanthes hamiltoniana are in bud, and the white daisy-like flowers of the Montanoa are coming into bloom. An assortment of pink/lilac tree dahlias are waving in the wind, leaving a gorgeous carpet of spent flowers on the ground, and the Thunbergia grandiflora on our pergola is starting to cover and bloom. As a reminder that the cold doesn’t last forever, the spring and summer bulbs we have planted are pushing out leaves.

Tree dahlia reaching for the heavens

Daisy tree coming into bloom

As soon as the deciduous trees start dropping their leaves, we change into leaf gathering gear!  The “display boxes” in the nursery are emptied to become compost bins, and my lovely car becomes a tractor for the next few weeks as we drive around and load bales and bags of leaves into the back. Pure gold for next season’s flower beds, nursery plants and propogation!

 

Just enough space for a leaf-gatherer as we head for home!

IN THE NURSERY

Click here to view all the plants in this newsletter on one website page.

Indigenous plants

Laportea grossa (the spotted nettle) is an unusual evergreen perennial with toothed spotted stinging leaves and upright stems with stinging hairs. It is lovely for lightening up shady (even very shady) spots in the garden, and the new leaf tips can be eaten. Keep it moist.

To my mind, Ornithogalum juncifolia (Star of Bethlehem) is such an underrated plant. This gorgeous clump-forming bulb has spikey grasslike foliage and white starlike flowers all summer, and multiplies well. Essentially a bog plant, it wants moist soil but is happy in either sun or semi-shade. Evergreen and hardy, it grows on average 30cm high.

The spreading deciduous perennial Persicaria senegalensis does equally well in a pond or in the garden. It has very attractive large silver leaves and sprays of golden grasslike flowers from summer to autumn, and reaches an average height of 1,5m. It likes a sunny position.

Thunbergia neglecta is a waterwise scrambling climber with heart-shaped toothed furry green leaves and large cream flowers from spring to summer which are much loved by bees. It is evergreen and hardy, and grows on average 1,5m high. Plant in semi-shade.

Exotic plants

The hardy Heimia salicifolia is one of my favourite plants in the garden. A bushy evergreen approximately 90cm high shrub with woody stems, it has frilly yellow flowers tucked between the narrow dark green leaves in summer. It is happy in sun or semi-shade.

Phlebodium aureum is a creeping rhizomatous perennial fern that has large fronds with deeply undulated the margins. The thick rhizome is densely covered in golden-brown scales. The fronds are large and deeply lobed with undulated margins. Evergreen and hardy, it reaches an average height of 1,3m and wants shade to deep shade. We have beautiful specimens in the nursery.

The Belize sage, Salvia miniata, is a gorgeous rare well-shaped approximately 1m high perennial with smooth glossy bright green leaves and luminous reddish orange flowers that attract birds and butterflies from summer to autumn. Plant in semi-shade.

The bright yellow flowers of Reinwartia indica provide some cheerful colour in the winter garden. This is a rounded hardy evergreen shrub with finely toothed grey-green leaves which grows about 90cm high and likes part shade.

SNIPPETS

South Africa did it again at this year’s prestigious Chelsea Flower Show. Not only did the team scoop up another gold medal, they also won the Lawrence Medal for the first time for the best floral exhibit across all the Royal Horticultural shows from 2024 to this Chelsea Flower Show.

Gardeners in the Western Cape will have a chance to view a reconstruction of the exhibit from 10-24 September at Grootbos Nature Reserve outside Stanford, which was one of the sponsors of this year’s exhibit.

FUN FACT

Hundreds of rooibos teabags were steeped in the water that formed part of South Africa’s SA exhibit at the Chelsea Flower Show to give it the amber hue of the Cape mountain streams.

 

Happy gardening!

Leoné

082 482 0257