Spring in our Step
IT IS HARD to believe we are halfway through August with spring peeping through earlier than planned.
I have been travelling in the past month to interesting places such as Graaff-Reinet and Cape Town. To experience the different climatic zones in South Africa is always fun because you get to see how different plants grow in different parts of the country.
KwaZulu-Natal is subtropical, the Eastern Cape has a mix of summer and winter rainfall and Cape Town is a winter rainfall region. GraaffReinet has not had rain for 13 months which is hard to believe when you come from a rainfall region such as KZN.
Spring is well on its way in Durban. You will see many of the trees pushing new copper leaves such as the Mitzeeri
(Bridelia micrantha) and the Broom cluster fig (Ficus sur).
I am in the Northern Cape with 14 avid gardeners looking at what spring has to offer in Namaqualand, which is totally reliant on winter rain to ensure the seeds germinate. Sadly no rain, no flowers and we all know how little rain the Cape has had this past year.
I visited one of South Africa’s largest tree nurseries in Somerset West recently and was told they had no water to keep their big trees alive. Let’s just hope they have late rains to fill the dams. It is a wake-up call for all of us to watch how much water we use and waste every day.
Spring is also the time for one of my favourite trees to flower. The African dog rose
(Xylotheca kraussiana) is found along the eastern parts of southern Africa, from the Transkei to Mozambique, in coastal bush and forests, flowering in early spring. It is a multi-stemmed shrub to small tree between one and seven metres tall, occasionally reaching 10m.
It has a smooth grey bark, sweetly scented flowers that can reach 70mm in diameter, with brilliant white petals and a mass of bright yellow anthers in the centre, thus giving it the English common name of African dog rose.
The fruit is a woody ovoid capsule, often with longitudinal ridges. It is initially green but ripens to yellow before splitting into eight rather thick sections, revealing the reddish black seeds, each covered by a thick red, hairy, edible aril.
Xylotheca gets its name from the woody fruit capsule.
Xyl meaning woody, and theca meaning case. The specific name kraussiana is in honour of Dr CFF Krauss (1812-1890), a German naturalist, who later became the director of the Stuttgart Natural History Museum.
He came to South Africa in 1838 and did lots of collecting in Natal in 1839 and 1840.
Xylotheca kraussiana is the only species in South Africa, with one other species,
Xylotheca tettensis, found in Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
If you are looking for a plant to bring birds and butterflies to your garden this is the plant. Three different species of barbets, speckled mousebirds, starlings, louries and bulbuls feed on the fruit.
It is also the larval food for
the red Acraea butterfly, Acraea
petraea and Acraea oncaea. I have a large tree in my garden and every year its leaves get eaten by the larva and within a few weeks I have a garden full of butterflies.
This tree is available in some nurseries, but if you can’t find it give me a call and I will tell you which nurseries stock it. It likes to grow in a frost-free area, requires filtered light and does well in a pot. I highly recommend it not just for a small garden but gardensof all sizes. It is easily grown from seed.
As we move out of winter into early spring, we need to take note of the changes in the growth habits of our plants and what we need to do in preparation for summer. It has not been that cold this year so many plants continued to grow throughout the winter months.
Indicator plants always tell you that spring is on its way, such as the flowering of the Blood Lily (Scadoxus puniceus) which tells people living in the rural areas to start planting their summer crops.
We had quite a burst of rain a few weeks ago which gave dormant buds a nudge to say “hey, wake up, time to produce new leaves”.
Most plants will flower first before pushing new leaves.
Rothmannia globos has the common name of September bells as it produces white bellshaped flowers in September.
I visited the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in Cape Town a week ago and it was incredible to see many plants, such as the Proteacea family, all pushing flower buds.
Birds and bees dance around intoxicated with all the choice for nectar and it is just fun to sit and watch so many plants coming into flower or in flower.
But all plants need water and I cannot emphasise enough the importance of not wasting this resource. Unless we have a water source that is free, such as a river that runs through our garden or access to a natural spring, gardening as we know it will have to change and we will have to turn to more waterwise plants like aloes and succulents that survive under the most difficult of conditions.
I am guilty of watering my garden as I have too many delicate plants that require water. My wife Pamela gives me a hard time about it and she is right. I have sections in my garden that, over the next season, will be converted into a water-wise garden. Let’s all hope we have a good rainy season this summer.
If you need any info or help with any gardening queries, please contact me on: cgmdalzell@gmail.com
This article is sponsored by Chris Dalzell Landscapes, specialising in landscaping, consultation and botanical expeditions.