26 October, 2012

Wildflower Wednesday for October

The roses are lovely, in our garden, in vases in our house, and scattered across the Cape Town family – but today I turn to South African glory for Wildflower Wednesday. Roughly sorted by colour, from purple, thru red and yellow, to green.  First choice is the citrus-scented Pelargonium citronellum, toothed leaves are always attractive (and smell yummy), when in bloom the flowers are delicately ornate.

citrus-scented Pelargonium citronellum


You need to dip down to see the architectural details of Pelargonium neochilus, and catch the funky smell of muishondblaar. The luminous mauve vygie has gone to seed, but in its time it was striking! The scabious (whose name my sister hates, but it was once used as cure for scabies) are waving lilac hands.

vygie, Plectranthus neochilus
scabious

A volunteer in with the potted Ficus benjamina is this little electric pink Oxalis. The inherited watsonias are emerging in shades of pink, and some have graceful arched swan-necks. Veltheimia come forward, now that I’ve weeded out a substantial chunk of Chasmanthe (a little TOO much of a good thing). Wild iris Dietes brings a succession of fleeting flowers, as day-lilies do.

Oxalis, Watsonia
Veltheimia, Dietes

Among my varied pelargoniums are tiny flowers on the mint pelargonium (growing in the shade) and this, the nutmeg pelargonium with its kidney-shaped leaves.

pelargoniums

Halleria lucida was planted for the birds. It’s a curious plant that I forget to photograph as the flowers are borne on old wood, hidden away far beneath the leaves. There too the green berries form, and I see birds hopping about, inside the tree.

Halleria lucida

Poised eagerly on the table of a yellow Euryops flower is a yellow crab-spider. Of three fancy varieties of Gazania I planted, only the cream ones continue. Hypoxis, the African potato used as a treatment for HIV/AIDS, has yellow star-shaped flowers, and leaves in three ranks. Needs more space to display those leaves. Succulent Bulbinella blooms in tangerine, and in yellow.

Euryops, Gazanaia
Hypoxis,
bulbinella

The delicate little flowers are hard for the camera to see, but the human eye absorbs the display. Buddleja has white flowers, but the unfortunate dried mustard yellow eye makes the flowers look drab en masse. But it smells, delectable, of honey and joy. Tiny white flowers on Coleonema – the plant fisherman use to cleanse the pong from their working hands. Little pink balls on Erica baccans, the berry heath, my solitary fynbos survivor.

Buddleja, Coleonema
Buddleja, Erica baccans

Muting gently down to texture, browns and greens. Twirled barley sugar twists of the flowers in the olifantsriet Restio. Tarchonanthus arms framing the Canadian Prunus nigra. Melianthus is currently offering glaucous blue-green leaves and huge sculptural seeds for me, with flowers filled with black nectar for our birds who call Elephant’s Eye home.

olifantsriet Restio, Tarchonanthus
Melianthus

Time out. I’ll take my tea to that little blue bench at Rest and Be Thankful. Gaze across the flowers, listen to the bird conversations, and appreciate the shade on one of our first – warning uncomfortable weather days at 28C 82F (the weatherman threatened 31C 88F).

Rest and Be Thankful

Pictures and words by Diana of  Elephant's Eye
- wildlife gardening in Porterville, 
near Cape Town in South Africa


(If you mouse over brown text, it turns shriek pink. 
Those are my links.)

35 comments:

  1. Lovely post. I see more and more plants that our gardens have in common. Curious about your citrus pelargonium - is it P.crispum (small leaves) or P.citronellum (larger leaves) I have recently added both to my garden.

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    1. that was the nudge I needed ... on PlantZAfrica I see mine is citronellum, palmate leaves with sharp points. A dangerous weapon, armed with lemon oil.

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  2. Love all the plants that have medicinal values. Your garden is looking very fine:) Winter is approaching here and I'm planning out more in the garden again. And I'm looking for plants that do more than just decorate:)

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  3. Dianna, a absolute feast for my poor color starved eyes....it's all brown, and russets here, and while that may be nice. It's not as beautiful as where you live.

    I love seeing the new to me flowers, and the old "hey we have those" fav's.

    Do you grow Rhodohypoxis there? It's got little star like hot pink, light pink, or white flowers....it grows down on the coast, but I think it's not hardy enough here.

    Thanks so much for lifting my color seeking spirits, I really needed to see this today.

    Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

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    1. That is a plant I don't know, so I went to PlantZAfrica -

      'Rhodohypoxis baurii is found between Umtata in the Eastern Cape and Barberton in Mpumalanga, above altitudes of about 1 100 m, with its main centre of distribution in the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg. As this is a high altitude, summer rainfall region, the plants are exposed to dry, cold winters. They are usually found in moist, rocky habitats'

      Summer rainfall, dry winters - not suited to our mediterranean climate. But we could both grow them in pots.

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  4. Great post for Wildflower Wednesday! That Halleria lucida is fascinating--I don't think I've seen that one before. It's definitely a beautiful time in your garden!

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    1. they say - one of the few trees in the snapdragon and foxglove family.

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  5. A treat to see what's going on in your part of the world when we are experiencing the first signs of Winter.

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  6. Oh, it is all so lovely! I, personally, adore Scabiosa. It flowers for me almost non-stop, even though mine gave out completely. I absolutely love your halleria! I've never seen anything like it before - so interesting. Melianthus is also quite striking.

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  7. I love your little bench in Rest and Be Thankful. It looks like the perfect spot to enjoy your garden. i enjoyed seeing all of your wildflowers. Some, like oxalis, are common to my own garden, but many, like Melianthus, are completely foreign and exotic to me.

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  8. Wow. I read about your plants and it's as if I know nothing.

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    1. Way back, when we started the Camps Bay garden - we had to wait for the annual sale of indigenous plants at Kirstenbosch. Our more unusual plants started there. Now, we have TA DA nurseries that specialise in, or focus completely on, indigenous plants. We can buy our plants year round!

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  9. I have suspected that most people reading blogs are bloggers. It's all about the conversation. That last group of plants is wonderful. Is that not a pink Knophia in the second group?

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    1. Top left, the very purple vygie? Lost the label, but I think it is either Lampranthus or Ruschia.

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    2. oh wait I think you are looking at the Veltheimia. 'Knophia' must be a North American common name for our Kniphofia.
      Kniphofia is asphodel family, and Veltheimia is hyacinth family.

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  10. I like your 'South African Glory' . Your wild flowers are our exotic greenhouse flowers. In my glasshouse I have Watsonias and the Dietes Iris, which I brought from Madeira. I could not help laughing about the word 'muishondblaar', I wonder what kind of smell that should be. Anyway I know that Plectranthus 'niet zo lekker ruikt'.
    Groeten, Janneke

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    1. It is a funky, strong herbal smell, not unpleasant, but you wouldn't run your hands thru it like lavender.

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  11. Spring/summer is progressing for you as autumn has made itself felt this weekend. Christina

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  12. Diana, Another beautiful WW. I appreciate seeing our exotics in their native setting! I have to agree with your sister Scabious is a terrible name for such a lovely plant! gail

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  13. Beautiful flowers Diana! I am a bit curious about the name muishondblaar. Where does it come from? Is a muishond some kind of South African animal that gets blisters from this plant? Or is blaar another word for bladeren (leaves) and not for blaren (blisters)?

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    1. This is leaves, and the muishond is a mongoose. The leaves I presume smell like a wild animal (never smelt a mongoose ...) Janneke is on the right track.

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  14. What absolutely beautiful flowers!! Love this!

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  15. Diana I adore your Pelargoniums and am so jealous that they are a wildflower for you. One of my fav summer flowers. And it is nice to hear your weather is warming although fast and hot it seems. I have never heard of Melianthus but it is one cool plant!

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  16. I am always in awe at your beautiful garden and trying to imagine all the work that goes into it. Although its still horribly wet around my place I'm starting to think what to do once it dries out enough.

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    1. hmmm I'm thinking maybe there is a blog post in 'our garden work'

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  17. I thought I recognised your Veltheimia as being a relative of Red Hot Poker, but it's actually more closely related to bluebells.

    (PS. Congratulations on your 401th post)

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  18. I've added your wonderful blog to my sidebar so I don't miss any more posts. :o) It was so good to see your bench and pond again. Everything looks so beautiful! I really like the halleria. It reminds me of honeysuckle.
    So far we still have power and aren't taking on too much water. The worst is still ahead but all will be well, even if it's bumpy for a bit in the middle. :o)

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  19. Diana, I see you have many varieties of one of my favourite plants. Scented pelargoniums are house plants only here and I've never seen one bloom. (I just like rubbing the leaves in my fingers) I was surprised to see they look just like the regular flowering geraniums though I should have guessed as it only makes sense.

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    1. I've read about a yellow pelargonium, that, like the true blue rose, is a colour nature doesN'T do.

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  20. The striking beauty and colour of your world has knocked me off my winter perch this morning! South African Glory indeed!! What a beauty. I feel your own colour and passion too in your words and observations, inspirational:~)

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  21. Such a beautiful variety of flowers. The last photo is where I'd be surely relaxing too. It is so serene looking.

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  22. Oh, I so wish I could come and see it with you. One day...
    Thank you so much, Diana, for your comment on my new blog. It inspired me to write a post, so I do hope you manage to find time to come back and read it. http://awkwardhill.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/dreams-designs-and-dangerous-women.html

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    1. I already have your new blog tucked hopefully in my Google Reader!

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Photographs are from Diana Studer or Jurg Studer.
My Canon PowerShot A490

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