Wildflower Wednesday with July weather

Fact is stranger than fiction. Beautiful mediterranean winter day here. Blue sky and the cat sitting in my shade. We are in the eye of the storm. The country around us has rain. And snow!! The national road between Cape Town and Johannesburg was closed by snow, and so was the second route. Meanwhile our Swartland wheat farmers wait for rain. We’ve had no rain since the 2nd of July, and this should be a heavy winter rain month.

Kniphofia fading to yellow

This Kniphofia red hot poker was bought as yellow. Above two weeks ago, below today as the older flowers fade to yellow. Hmmph!

Winter bulbs in South Africa

Everywhere is an undercarpet of lime yellow Oxalis pes-caprae. Arum lilies Zantedeschia aethiopica in the Paradise and Roses Garden. Little clumps of mauve Tulbaghia, and pots of deepest red Lachenalia rubida, and the Freesia alba bowing down under the weight of buds.

Succulents on the Karoo Koppie
and the Hedge Fund

The Karoo Koppie still gives an impression of yellow (fading aloes, Oxalis and Bulbinella) and red and orange aloes and plakkies =  Cotyledon orbiculata. At the washing lines our Hedge Fund of Crassula ovata Pink Joy jade plant, is covered with a shawl of tiny blush pink flowers with stamens in raspberry and violet.

White daisy with butterfly

The white Dimorphotheca jucunda flowers are all looking ratty but they still draw butterflies.

South African daisies in winter July

We have yellow Euryops and Chrysanthemoides monilifera = bietou.  Gazanias in yellow and cream. Dimorphotheca jucunda in deep purple flecked with shadows from the tall green grass we grow for the weavers to build their nests with. Finally the true blue kingfisher daisy Felicia – this way to Happiness.

Tecomaria capensis

Tecomaria capensis lutea in yellow, a ‘sunset’ variety in yellow and orange, and Big Red.

Nectar thief left slits in Tecomaria flower

In the University of the Blogosphere I read about nectar robbers. And behold on my computer screen – are the slits in the tubes, left by our nectar thieves.

Pelargoniums

Pelargoniums in pink, white and salmon. Red is a bit slow.

Strelitzia regina and Salvia africana-lutea

Strelitzia regina, above the Mandela’s Gold, below the original species. It is hard in a garden view, to show the gentle difference in the colours. To the right the only indigenous sage blooming. Salvia africana-lutea = Strandsalie beloved by FaroutFlora in SF California.

Winter colour with July shrubs and smalls

Feathery white knoffelboegoe, garlic buchu (with Riversdale memories). Purple ribbon bush Hypoestes. Lavender coloured but fiercely scented Plectranthus neochilus = muishondblaar. Tiny pink (weedy) wildflower? Grewia occidentalis cross berry with star shaped pink flowers on a small tree. Fragrant jasmine at the bedroom window.

Most pictures were taken today, some from two weeks ago, but I gather together all South African native/indigenous/wild flowers from my garden for Wildflower Wednesday.

Pictures by Diana and Jurg,

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.)