Whale Watching in Hermanus

Posted on April 22, 2015 by Janet

It’s late morning on the 10^th day of our South Africa Garden Tour. Having enjoyed our brief visit to the Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens in Betty’s Bay a little more than an hour out of Cape Town, we are now enroute to the town of Hermanus, a half-hour further down the coast, overlooking Walker Bay.

On the way, we pass some interesting homes built right on the fynbos beneath the Kogelsberg Reserve.. (Photos taken though bus window, so forgive the quality, etc etc)

The tradeoff for having a house like this one surrounded by gorgeous native flora is the risk that the wildfires that regularly renew the fynbos can also reduce your home to ashes.

We arrive in the town of Hermanus. It was once called Hermanuspietersfontein, but that proved too unwieldy for the postal service, so it was shortened. Like most visitors, we head straight to the seaside, where an interpretive sign above the beach explains just what makes Hermanus such a popular place. For it’s here where people can observe the Southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) that migrate to the shallow, sandy-bottomed waters of Walker Bay and spend the months of June to November mating, calving and raising their young until they have enough blubber not to sink in deeper waters of the Antarctic to which they will return come the southern hemisphere summer. South Africa has strict rules about whale conservation on all its coasts and in 2001, this area was proclaimed the Walker Bay Whale Sanctuary Marine Protected Area.

We stop at one of the many overlooks facing Walker Bay and the spectacular coastline behind it. Below us is the Old Harbour Museum, one of the few open air museums in the world, and once the centre of life here in Hermanus.

On the way down to the rocky shore, we see a rock hyrax – this one a little more active than the one I saw sitting in its “latrine” on Table Mountain.

Though the old fishing boats now sit high and dry (with holes in their bottoms), the Old Harbour Museum provides a good spot for whale watching.

We move down the shore, keeping an eye open for the perfect site on the rocky outcrops dotted with tourists.

I spot a group of people on a promontory,all aiming their long lenses toward the sea where a female southern right whale and her calf are frolicking.

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So down we go and now I’m set up looking out onto Walker Bay. The rock I’m standing on is Malmesbury Group shale and the mountains behind Hermanus in the distance are the Kleinrivier Range.

With my telephoto lens, I can focus a little on a whale and also bring up the sheer, majestic face of the mountains in the distance.

Southern right whales are not that active in the water, compared to humpback whales, which seem to fly through the air as they breach. But I have fun trying to catch the odd fluke – this might be considered “tailsailing”…..

…..and it’s interesting to see the “callosities” on the head of this whale. Though the callosities themselves are calcified skin patches, they appear white because of the presence of large colonies of whale lice, barnacles and parasitic worms which live on them. Seasoned whale-watchers use these callosities to distinguish one whale from another.

The move below is called “spyhopping”, a controlled raise of the head out of the water using the pectoral flippers, similar to a human treading water.

And I catch the splash end of a breach.

Though it’s a little hard to detect, the photo below shows the southern right whale’s distinctive, v-shaped, double spout on the right.

Finally, it’s time to say goodbye to the southern right whales of Walker Bay. It’s been a thrill to watch them play, but it’s time for lunch and then the drive back to Cape Town. (But do be sure to join me in my next blog, when I visit one of South Africa’s finest wineries.)

The Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Janet

Today, the 10^th day of our South Africa garden tour, we’re heading out of Cape Town with our ultimate destination the town of Hermanus for whale-watching. Our route will take us around Table Mountain out of the city, then over the Cape Flats and ultimately, on R44 or Clarence Drive, along the seashore of False Bay (so-called because it tricked a lot of mariners who thought they had already rounded the Cape of Good Hope into Table Bay). False Bay has some smaller bays, including Gordon’s Bay, which gives its name to a specific, endangered plant, the Gordon’s Bay pincushion (Leucadendron bolusii). The road will cut across the point under the Kogelberg Nature Reserve and we will stop in Betty’s Bay at the Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens (red arrow on the map).

I point my camera through the window of the moving bus to capture some of the magnificent coastal scenery on the way. This is Kogel Bay, approaching the Kogelberg Nature Reserve, where the wind often blows very hard, making it a favourite spot for surfing. And sadly, though it’s normally considered a low-risk area for sharks, a young body-boarder was killed here by a great white shark in 2012.

Down the beach, a tidal pool has been partly enclosed for safe swimming.

Visitors can camp here and bring food to “braii” (barbecue).

Though the rocks are a favourite place from which to fish, many anglers have also been swept into the sea near here, and their memorial crosses dot the shore.

A little more than an hour out of Cape Town, we arrive at the Harold Porter Botanical Gardens. This stop is a late addition to our itinerary and most of us on the tour could not be happier. We’ve seen a lot of beautiful private gardens in our first 9 days, but the botanical enthusiasts are itching to see the unique fynbos flora! And here (sadly in a bit too much sunshine for a good photo) are some of the plants we’ll see in bloom at Harold Porter, including yellow Leucospermum conocarpodendron, orange Leucospermum cordifolium and pink watsonia.

Less than a year before our visit, in November 2013, the garden was inundated with mud and water from heavy rains that caused a landslide from the mountains behind. Photos appear here behind some of the other plants in bloom.

There’s a lovely container of indigenous flowers in the garden entrance room.

The garden sits between the sea at Betty’s Bay (that is the gorgeous blue sceptre, Aristea capitata at the right) ….

…..and the Kogelberg Mountain Range, whose slopes are spangled with the unique fynbos species of the Cape Floristic Province. Here’s a little video on the Kogelberg Nature Reserve.

Conscious of the time, I rush madly from bed to bed, moving from the bottom near the visitor centre up to the bridge that leads to the fynbos trail.

I zero in on a sprawling plant, below, from the bed above. It’s Felicia fruticosa, shrub aster or bush felicia. It reminds me a little of our autumn-flowering North American asters.

Here’s the familiar fan aloe, now renamed Kumara plicatilis, with a great backdrop of the mountains.

And lots of little flowers I’m not familiar with, like these tiny “wild violets” Monopsis unidentata…..

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….. and this shrubby groundcover called doll’s rose or hermannia (Hermannia pinnata)….

And the amazing little strawflower-like plant called Cape snow, Syncarpha vestita.

We’ll see a lot of this little wild scabious (Scabiosa incisa) in the gardens around Cape Town – and also the pretty Acraea species butterfly nectaring on it.

And here’s sweet little Pelargonium citronellum, which we know in North America for its derivative essential oil citronella, commonly used as a natural mosquito repellant.

I love botanical gardens that use their plants and the environment in which they grow to offer educational insights that go beyond simple identification. This little display explains how the tannins in the tough fynbos plants make their way into the groundwater, turning it brown.

Here is the inflorescence of Brunia albiflora, called knopbossie or “knob-flower” in Afrikaans because of the shape of the flowers. Like many fynbos species it is nominally serotinous, meaning the seeds are disseminated following a fire (though it can also seed without fire). According to plantzafrica, it is endemic to this part of the Western Cape, from the Hottentots Holland Mountains to Hermanus.

Protea nitida or wagon-tree (waboom in Afrikaans) has distinctive blue-green leaves and fluffy white flowers. It’s one of the few proteas that can become a small tree, in time reaching 15-30 feet (5-10 metres).

Here’s the beautiful and complex flower of the tree pincushion (Leucospermum conocarpodendron), the largest of the pincushion proteas.

And two of the most commonly-seen, but beautiful, fynbos species, blue sceptre (Aristea capitata) and red pincushion protea (Leucospermum cordifolium). Don’t they look amazing together?

A wetland with a little bridge near the top of the garden contains a profusion of striking, yellow-flowered Wachendorfia thyrsiflora. Its common name is bloodwort or bloodroot for its red roots.

I wish we had at least another half-day in this charming garden, then we could cross this bridge and hike up into the fynbos.

…..where leopards are said to roam from time to time……

……but where we would be much more likely to run into the wild Leucospermum cordifolium spangling the fynbos than leopards. Isn’t this fabulous?

However, it’s time to head back to the bus for the short hop down the highway to Hermanus to look for whales. But this little botanical garden has stolen my heart.

Up on Table Mountain

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Janet

It helps considerably during a tour of any kind when flexibility on the part of the organizers permits last-minute changes to the schedule in order to seize an advantage. That’s what happens on Day 8 of our South African garden tour, when our guide Deon casts a look at the clear blue sky around Table Mountain as we drive out to Stellenberg this morning before enjoying our tour and delicious lunch at Cellars-Hohenort. Because the mountain is so often cloud-shrouded and so windy the cable cars cannot operate, it’s decided that we should count our weather blessings and visit it this afternoon. It’s an impressive sight, this jutting tafelberg (its name in Afrikaans) that forms a dramatic backdrop to the city of Cape Town – even seen through the window of our tour bus. The red arrow shows the terminus station for the Aerial Cableway that we will use to climb to the 3,653-foot (1,086 metre) summit.

Having lived in Vancouver for 19 years, I am familiar with the feeling of having mountains as a geographic constant in one’s life. There, the north shore mountains were our directional compass; provided they weren’t clouded in, you always knew which way you were headed because the mountains were north. But the city of Cape Town has developed around Table Mountain like a thick convex crescent with a bulge on the inner edge. That bulge (you’ll see it in my photos further down) is delineated on the south by the pinnacled Lion’s Head and then the long fold of Signal Hill to form the “Cape Bowl”. So depending on where you are in the city and its suburbs, Table Mountain and its floriferous slopes can be north, east, south or west of where you are. In a few days, we’ll be visiting Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens which is on the lower slope of the east side of Table Mountain. In this closer view, you can just make out the cables of the Aerial Cableway (red arrow).

I’ve marked up this NASA satellite image to show some of the landmarks of this part of the Western Cape Province. Though Table Mountain (red arrow) looks small from this vantage point, its flat plateau top is about 2 miles from side to side and, of course, its area at sea level is much bigger. Together with Devil’s Peak, Lion’s Head and Signal Hill it forms the northernmost part of the sandstone range that is the rocky spine of the Cape Peninsula. At the southeast tip is Cape Point, which is not the Cape of Good Hope, the latter being the most southwest point of Africa and the Cape Peninsula. Table Mountain is also the most popular part of Table Mountain National Park, which covers 85 square miles. Because the mountain range is not contiguous and there are cities and towns sprinkled in between, the park is divided into three parts: 1) the Table Mountain Section; 2) the Silvermine-Tokai Section; and 3) the Cape Point Section stretching from Cape Point to the Cape of Good Hope. In the next few days, we’ll visit the vineyards of Stellenbosch and we’ll circle False Bay to get to the delightful Harold Porter Botanical Garden in Betty’s Bay on our way to spot the whales frolicking at Hermanus. And Robben Island (lower left), of course, is where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 of the 27 years he spent in jail before the fall of South Africa’s apartheid governent.

The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway was built in 1929 and each of its cars can carry 65 passengers. Prior to being built, visitors to Table Mountain had to climb it on foot. The cableway prides itself on being accident free for more than 85 years. I make sure to find a place at the window; since the cars rotate slowly 360 degrees as they climb, it’s a perfect way to see both the view of Cape Town below (that’s Signal Hill on the left and Robben Island in the bay beyond it), and the mountain flora below.

With my telephoto lens, I can see Table Bay and downtown Cape Town clearly. The bay was dangerous to navigate before breakwaters were built and ships wrecked in its shallows for hundreds of years. Today, the port is the second biggest after Durban in South Africa.

More views of Table Bay and the city as we ascend.

And here are the pinnacled Lion’s Head and the long spine of Signal Hill that help to shape that Cape Bowl. That circular building at the end of Signal Hill is the Cape Town Stadium at Green Point, built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Our hotel is less than a mile from the stadium and close to the Victoria and Albert Shopping centre, too. Later this week, we’ll watch hundreds of fans parade down the street after Cape Town Ajax loses to Johannesburg’s Kaiser Chiefs.

Gazing down at the slopes, the vegetation is tantalizing. How wonderful it would be to be hiking up through the fynbos and exploring the unique flora, like this rare and endangered tree pincushion (Leucospermum conocarpodendron ssp. conocarpodendron), which grows only in the fertile soil on the Precambrian-era Cape Granite at the base of Table Mountain. Above the granite, there’s a narrow layer of reddish Malmesbury shale.

As we approach the top, the geology of the uppermost layers changes from granite topped with shale to the characteristic steep grey crags of the very hard, quartzitic, erosion-resistant, Ordivician sandstone known as Peninsula Formation Sandstone (or Table Mountain Sandstone)

Below is Devil’s Peak, adjacent to Table Mountain, so named because when the inevitable clouds swirl around its peak it is said to resemble the devil smoking a pipe. In a day or so, we’ll visit the Rhodes Memorial on its lower flank. And the name? According to Wikipedia: “The English term Devil’s Peak is a 19th-century translation from the Dutch Duiwels Kop, and supposedly comes from the folk-tale about a Dutch man called Jan van Hunks, a prodigious pipe smoker who lived at the foot of the mountain circa 1700. He was forced by his wife to leave the house whenever he smoked his pipe. One day, while smoking on the slopes of the peak, he met a mysterious stranger who also smoked. They each bragged of how much they smoked and so they fell into a pipe-smoking contest. The stranger turned out to be the Devil and Van Hunks eventually won the contest, but not before the smoke that they had made had covered the mountain, forming the table cloth cloud.”

We are now so high that I can see behind Lion’s Head and Signal Hill to the affluent suburb of Camps Bay, with its rocky shoals and white sand beaches.

And here we look south down the green spine of the mountains of the Cape Peninsula.

Some people prefer to hike up the mountain, like this enterprising trio. But I suspect as scary as this looks from my angle in the cablecar, the upper portion is likely more of a sandstone stairmaster from hell!
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Finally, we approach the upper terminus and exit the cablecar.

We’re free to wander about the plateau on our own for an hour or so. Look at all those native restios that have been such a big part of ornamental gardens in milder parts of North America. Lots of tourists are up here enjoying the easy stroll over the “tabletop”, which owes its flatness……

….. to the fact that it was once the bottom of a valley. (Photo from Wikipedia and used under Creative Commons Licence.)

I rush about snapping photos of plants that catch my eye, but the sunshine is brilliant and the shadows are deep, poor conditions for photography. I try to concentrate on the fact that many tourists miss the chance to be right where I am now. Table Mountain is renowned for its biodiversity and its unique “Cape Fynbos” vegetation. Fynbos is defined as a sclerophyllous (having hard leaves) shrubland occurring on acid sands or nutrient poor soils derived from Table Mountain Sandstones. It includes many members of the Protea family (Proteaceae), the Heath family (Ericaceae) and the Reed family of restios (Restionaceae). The mountain’s vegetation types form part of the Cape Floral Region protected areas. These protected areas are a World Heritage Site, and an estimated 2,200 species of plants are confined to Table Mountain – more than exist in the whole of the United Kingdom.Though it is the smallest of the six recognized floristic regions on the planet, it is the most diverse, with more than 9,000 vascular plant species.

I see the tree aloe (Aloe arborescens), now past its winter flowering.

Here are the distinctive leaves of the red heath (Erica abietina ssp. abietina) – a photo I was going to toss out, but I do like the feathery leaves.

This is thatching reed (Thamnochortus insignis), one of the restios used for thatched roofs.

And the Peninsula conebush (Leucadendron strobilinum), so called because its flowers look like pine cones.

Golden coulter bush (Hymenolepis parviflora) is growing everywhere.

And of course there is lots of the strawflower-like white everlasting (Edmondia sesamensis) seen throughout the Western Cape.

Perhaps the best way to see the myriad and marvelous flora of Table Mountain is to find someone who knows it well, loves plants and writes beautifully about them. That description would fit writer/photographer/forager Marie Viljoen, former Capetonian (ex-Brooklynite and now Harlem, New York resident) who goes “home” frequently and hikes the mountain with camera in hand. For those who want to see a little more of the Cape Fynbos flora, this is what you might find on a winter hike, i.e. June in North America. Treasures abound in the January summertime, too. And this remarkable flowering of fire liies from the ashes is what happens after wildfires like those of winter 2015. (And if you want a lovely New York photography-cookbook, consider buying Marie’s wonderful book 66 Square Feet: A Delicious Life, One Woman, One Terrace, 92 Recipes.)

Our time on the mountain is drawing to an end but as I walk back to the cableway station I spot a rock hyrax (“dassie” in Afrikaans) lying, appropriately enough, on a rock. Though you might be tempted to think this animal is related to the groundhog or guinea pig or some other furry creature, DNA testing has revealed the startling fact that his closest relative is the elephant. This dassie is a sentry for his nearby den and will spend long periods of time lying on this rock watching for predators (eagles are common), but also basking in the sun in order to manage thermoregulation, which is known to be poor in this species. By the evidence it would appear he’s been hanging out here for quite some time but, in fact, dassies create latrines in hollowed-out rocks or crevices and use those places faithfully. However, it’s not until I return home and start researching that I am filled with delight at having captured not just the animal, but his excrement. For the dassie’s accumulated, dried deposits (combinations of feces and urine) are called hyraceum, an aromatic substance that is the prized ingredient in many perfumes.

And on that fragrant note, I bid you adieu until the next time (which will be a city tour of Cape Town.)

Stellenberg: A Cape Dutch Classic

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Janet

It doesn’t take long to understand why Stellenberg Gardens, the first stop on Day 8 of our South Africa garden tour, has been showcased internationally on the BBC and is the subject of its very own book. Situated in a leafy section of Cape Town’s Kenilworth neighbourhood, the house is owned by Andrew and Sandy Ovenstone and has been in Andrew’s family since 1953. We are greeted by the family’s three tail-wagging dogs.

There are beautiful, mature trees surrounding the house, including a native North American pin oak (Quercus palustris). Oak trees have been a hallmark of Stellenberg since its beginnings.

Head gardener Athol McLaggan begins his history of the 6-acre estate as we make our way to the front of the house.

To reach the front, we wander through the lovely White Garden one of many discrete garden rooms on the property. Even at this time of year (October or mid-spring in Cape Town), there are beautiful examples of plants – often fragrant ones – that shimmer in the darkness.

For example, variegated confederate jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides ‘Variegatum’) thrives in Cape Town’s subtropical climate and is exquisitely-scented.

Four plants from Stellenberg’s White Garden are, clockwise from top left: chincherinchee (Ornithogalum thyrsoides); ‘White Barlow’ columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris); St. Joseph lily or Easter lily (Lilium longiflorum); and the rugosa rose ‘Blanc Double de Coubert’.

A shaded alfresco dining pergola is adjacent to the White Garden and, if you look closely, you can see white wisteria overhead. How romantic this table would be under the stars! Through the opening at the end…..

….you can see an original Stellenberg urn presiding over irises in the Parterre Garden. Behind is a high hedge of scented Japanese honeysuckle.

The front of the house faces the garden and displays the perfect symmetry of the Cape Dutch architectural style. In fact, some sources consider Stellenberg – which was declared a National Monument in 1971 – to be the finest extant example of that architectural style, since it has not been altered significantly since it was built in the 1740s, soon after the property was deeded via land grant from the Dutch East India Company. As we gaze up at the historic gable, sculpted in the Cape Baroque style in the 1790s by Anton Anreith, master sculptor to the Company, I marvel at all the Cape Town history this house has seen. Through a long and colourful succession of owners, it finally became the property of Jenk and Renee Ovenstone in 1953 and later passed to Andrew and Sandy.

After Sandy arrived at Stellenberg in 1973, she was content for a while with the inherited landscape of well-established lawns, trees and shrubs. But over the next 14 years, she nurtured her growing passion by learning all she could about gardening; touring famous Engllish gardens like Sissinghurst and Hidcote; and local gardens such as Babylonstoren in Drakenstein Valley, while being mentored by other Cape gardeners, including the owner of the beautiful Rustenberg Wine Estate in Stellenbosch. (I will be blogging about Babylonstoren and Rustenberg later). Finally in 1987, with the help of interior designers Graham Viney and Gary Searle, she created her first garden, the formal Herb Garden in the shape of a cool green St. Andrew’s Cross.

Nearby is the Medieval Garden with its fountain hewn from Paarl granite and its combination of vegetables, fruit. and…..

…… altar flowers and medicinal herbs, like sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata) seen here with pansies, columbines and scabiosas. This garden was designed with Franchesca Watson Braisler.

Adjacent to the house is the swimming pool with its borders of cool blue- and purple-flowered plants enhancing the pool’s turquoise colour.

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Luscious agapanthus and scented heliotrope are in bloom in the borders now, and…..

….. blue Willmott leadwort (Ceratostigma willmottiana) puts on its own show as well.

The famous Walled Garden – once a tennis court – was designed with the help of the late British interior and garden designer David Hicks. Though originally planted in roses….

the Walled Garden has been reworked to include beautiful combinations of perennials, with the parterres divided by clipped myrtle hedges. I think how lovely it would be to see the parterres a few months from now, in full bloom.

A honey bee nectars on Verbascum chaixii ‘Wedding Candles‘ in the Walled Garden.

Andrew and Sandy’s initials (and David Hicks’s too) overlook a Luytens bench commemorating their silver wedding anniversary in 1989.

The view to the house through the Walled Garden shows the billowing canopy of a syringa tree (Melia azardach)…

…..with its masses of light-mauve blossoms.

The Garden of Reflection features three simple black pools to reflect the sky and is planted with an understated palette to encourage a feeling of quiet contemplation.

The new Stream Garden is a testament to the natural water source that was a factor for the founding of the original 18^th century farm at Stellenberg, as it would have been vital for crops. Though we see Stellenberg’s gardens at the end of a wet winter, summer are very dry and the stream can be re-circulated if necessary.

A narrow whitewashed bridge traverses the stream, contrasting crisply with the cool green of the shade-loving foliage plants here.

We depart Stellenberg via the Wild Garden with its indigenous African plants. Here, a beautiful native plectranthus (P. zuluensis) catches my eye, as it seems to symbolize Sandy Ovenstone’s desire to experience gardening in all its guises, including that inspired by the magnificent native flora of South Africa itself.

And then it’s onto the bus, for we have a special garden visit and lunch ahead at the renowned Cellars Hoehenhort in the Constantia Valley.

In a Fern Valley at Makaranga

Posted on February 5, 2015 by Janet

It’s Day 6 of our South Africa Garden Tour and we drive from our Durban beachfront hotel about 30 miles to the Outer West region and the town of Kloof. We’re here to spend the morning and have lunch at Makaranga Lodge. Once the property of a wealthy and passionate plantsman, the late Leslie Riggall, who called it Fern Valley Botanical Garden, he developed it over 26 years, building a vast collection of camellias, magnolias, bromeliads and orchids, among other plants. He was especially knowledgeable about vireya rhododendrons, contributing to the Vireya Vine journal and growing them from seed. Many of the plants grow around a series of ornamental ponds fed by a stream running through the valley.

When Leslie and Gladys Riggall moved to Panama in 2002, their neighbours Danna and Chick Flack bought the 25-acre property and merged it with their own five acres. They renamed it Makaranga after the indigenous wild poplars (Macaranga capensis) growing by the stream in the valley and the Makaranga people of Inyanga, Zimbabwe, where Danna was born. While Chick Flack developed a 22-room five-star boutique hotel, conference centre and spa, Danna, took on the garden, which is now available for weddings and also simply for the enjoyment of guests. With the help of landscaper Phil Page and a gardening staff of 18, she designed a series of lush, flowing gardens around Leslie Riggall’s original plant collection, adding indigenous South African plants in evocative naturalistic settings, such as this small rocky koppie in front of the hotel.

As I start my tour, I pause, quite awe-struck to see such a large collection of cycads – one man’s passion donated to this garden. As a stock photographer, I can’t help but be a little excited, and stop to photograph the species, shown here in a mosaic array. Who was George Walters? I cannot find any background on him, but I hope someone sees his lovely collection online and thinks of him. (* Note in the comments below that George himself found his lovely collection here and commented!)

I walk down the hill and — peering over the bromeliads — see what has become quite a familiar sight in botanical gardens in North America: beautiful Zimbabwean sculpture, which seems so well suited to the leafy surroundings of this garden.

The collection is by renowned carver Joseph Ndandrika (1941-2002). This piece is titled Father & Son.

On the way to the valley gardens, I pass a giant rainbow gum (Eucalpytus degluptus), its multicolored trunk being caressed by another cycad, this one the Australian Macrozamia miquelii, known as “burrowang” down under.

I peer into the Japanese Garden built by Leslie Riggall. There are no blossoms on the trees, but we certainly saw Japanese cherries in full bloom in Johannesburg.

Here’s a familiar Japanese torii gate.

I get a little lost, but finally head down to Leslie Riggall’s original showplace: the lush Fern Valley filled with ponds, where giant South African tree ferns (Cyathea sp.) see their elegant fronds reflected in the water.

I veer off the road through the valley and take a path through manicured but jungle-like plantings……

….to arrive at the small waterfall that feeds the ponds.

Returning to the pond edge, I’m transfixed by this striking bird-of-paradise (Strelitzia nicolai), its purplish-black, crane-like flowers so similar yet so different from the orange-flowered birds (S. reginae) I’m used to seeing in conservatories in the northeast. Called the Natal wild banana, it is like a small tree and is one of the indigenous plants introduced to the valley to grow side by side with the camellias and tropical rhododendrons.

Speaking of rhododendrons, here is one of Leslie Riggall’s beloved Vireyas exhibiting its somewhat typical legginess. Native to southeast Asia, Vireyas provide an option for gardeners living in tropical and subtropical regions.

Seen close-up, the flowers are beautiful and its easier to see their resemblance to the rhodos I’m familiar with from gardens in the northern hemisphere.

This pond, surrounded by water-loving irises, is overseen by voluptuous statues imported from Italy.

But beauty doesn’t matter much to a white-breasted cormorant waiting for the visitors to leave so he can return to fishing. Look at the lush Gunnera manicata in the background.

Another view of this pond.

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The calla lilies (Zantedeschia aethiopica) are spectacular here, and of course they’re native to damp places throughout South Africa. As a bee photographer, I’m fascinated by the numerous African honey bees patiently gathering pollen from the yellow spadix of the callas.

The bromeliad collection is lovely and I see staghorn ferns (Platycerium sp.) in this spot too.

The matchstick bromeliad (Aechmea gamosepala) is always eye-catching, especially when it’s in perfect flower like this one.

There are a few heliconias, like this attractive cultivar called ‘Red Christmas’.

This beautiful Streptocarpus floribundus is on the South African endangered list.

Lots of epiphytic orchids grow down here, carefully trained on tree trunks. I think this tree might be the eponymous wild poplar (Macaranga capensis) that gives the garden its name!

A closer look at the orchid. How beautiful.

And some nice specimens of Epiphyllum cacti are growing epiphytically on trees here as well.

I’ve seen kangaroo paws (Anigozanthos) in California, and love their crazy flowers.

Peering down paths here and there, I think how wonderful it is to see the plants we know as “tropical houseplants” deployed in this setting. Here are thickets of Brazilian Ctenanthe setosa flanking the path into the other side of the Japanese garden.

A little rainshower begins (hilly Kloof is in KwaZulu-Natal’s mist belt, where precipitation is frequent) and I try to keep my camera and notebook dry, while gazing at this pond, its surface spangled with tropical waterlilies.

Here is a familiar sight: beautiful yellow Iris pseudacorus looking as aggressive here in South Africa as it looks in North America. It does have a large native range, including Europe, western Asia and northwest Africa, but not down here. The bees do love it, however.

The rain is increasing and it’s time for lunch up at the lodge in any case. I return passing some of the indigenous gardens, so different from the plantings we saw down in the valley. There are various succulent flowers and a sprinkling of wild garlic (Tulbaghia violacea).

Here’s a fabulous and quite small watsonia, possibly the endangered Watsonia canaliculata.

And large aloes (Aloe ferox, I think) growing in the familiar grassland setting in which it thrives in nature.

I pass the swimming pool with raindrops splashing on the water surface. No one’s swimming today, but it’s a nice spot for the hotel guests to escape the summer heat of KwaZulu-Natal. And now it’s time to sit down, dry off a little and have some lunch. We have to keep up our strength, after all, for another garden this afternoon.

Janet Davis Explores Colour

In the garden & the world

Tag Archives: South Africa

Whale Watching in Hermanus

The Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens

Up on Table Mountain

Stellenberg: A Cape Dutch Classic

In a Fern Valley at Makaranga

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