KIRSTENBOSCH Gardens, Cape Town, South Africa
By siris
10 comments
KIRSTENBOSCH lies at the bottom of the slopes of Table Mountain on the back side to CapeTown. It is the National Botanical garden of South Africa.
Display boards throughout the garden to help your understanding of the environment, although we chose to go around with a guide.
A display of some of the plants in flower at our time of visiting.
King Protea, the national flower, called the sugar bush.
Spot those birds, rather quick in flight, point the camera in the right direction and hope it’s in frame.
The yellow Strelitzia was named in honour of Nelson Mandela, but they also grow the orange and the black varieties.
The aim of the garden is to grow indigenous plants, many found only in this unique environment, but visiting dignitaires have given the gardens gifts of non native plants in the past which protocol demands they keep.
To celebrate the garden’s centenary in 2013, a treetop canopy walk was installed
Although most of the plants are vastly different
Some of the tender ones are grown as annuals or as houseplants in the UK.
Another of those informative display boards.
Here is a selection of plants I grow in my own garden in the Uk.
Geranium incanum
Crinum, though not necessarily these species
Watsonias, but I have not yet managed to flower the 1 pink & 1 white corms I bought in Madeira, although they have both increased their corms 4 fold.
I have 4 different colours of Dierama.
I did so like Bulbine fructescens that I have just bought seed from a Uk seed company.
Behind the pond one of the two cafes where we decided to have lunch,
before returning to our Hotel in CapeTown.
19 Feb, 2018
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Previous post: Table Mountain
Next post: Cape Point Nature Reserve, Nov 2017.
Comments
What a wonderful holiday Siris and so much to see.
19 Feb, 2018
It looks so beautifully warm! And a lovely hotel in the last photo too...if that is your hotel. Nice to see some of the plants we can also grow....although sometimes I wonder if they aren't just a little homesick for that sun! ;) Having said that, I wouldn't want to live there. I like the UK and our weather here is what makes us such great gardeners and keeps us fascinated and stretching the boundaries of hardiness etc. :)
19 Feb, 2018
Karen, no not our hotel, it's one of the Kirstenbosch cafe/restaurants, Wouldn't want an Hotel next to a static lake, risk of mozzies! We had to take anti-malaria tablets for when we arrived in Zambia later in our holiday.
19 Feb, 2018
Fascinating selection of plants, love the Protea, can be grown here, but takes some doing!! I liked the idea of the treetop canopy walk, a great holiday by the look of it Siris.
19 Feb, 2018
Oh groan...they give me terrible nightmares. I've only ever had to take them once, when we went to the Dominican Republic many years ago. I shan't be going anywhere that requires them in future...not worth it. If you have to take these horrible chemicals, I'd much rather stay in Europe!
19 Feb, 2018
The yellow Strelitzia was originally called 'Kirstenbosch Gold.' The rules on plant naming state the first name is the one you must use, but in this case, they were allowed to change it to 'Mandela Gold.'
Some of us are growing melianthus major in the UK and occasionally getting it to flower.
19 Feb, 2018
Dd, you'll have to put a tree house in your silver birch to view your garden ( and the surroundings) from a different aspect!
Karen, I know of someone who contracted malaria in France, and Corsica occasionally has outbreaks, you need to stay in somewhere cool (Scotland) to avoid completely.
Some of us...you? are growing Melianthus? I hope you've read the warning on the information board.
20 Feb, 2018
Oh no, not me. Melianthus is not my kind of plant at all. Lovely, but far too big.
20 Feb, 2018
Ha ha Siris, think I will give that one a miss, unless it was tall enough to see the sea!! we grow Melianthus btw!!!!
20 Feb, 2018
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So many beautiful exotic plants. The "touch-me-not" Honey plant has a good and a bad side. See that it can be used for healing even though the leaves and other parts are
so poisonous. Fascinating!
19 Feb, 2018