Flowers

I have always loved plants but never known much about them. I tried learning the names of indigenous trees back in my twenties when I lived in KwaZulu Natal and I learned a few, but never became a respectable arborologist, just as I tried to learn the names of birds but could never describe myself as an accomplished bird watcher. I listen to the garden guy on 702/567 Cape Talk on Saturday mornings - Linden I think his name is - and get depressed - he makes it sound like if you don't spend your life in the garden and your life savings on plants and accessories, not to mention fertiliser and non selective granular fungicide or whatever, you will never make it and you might as well not try at all.

Back here in Cape Town people come from all over the world to see our flowers at Kirstenbosch and elsewhere. In Fish Hoek most of us live on sea sand - at least in the part of Fish Hoek I come from. The wind always blows and the soil is really poor quality. In fact calling it soil is a bit of a stretch. So one is inclined to write it off. But this year I have been astounded at just how much there is in bloom in our own garden and in the neighbourhood. Maybe it was always there and I only noticed it now.

We have a number of aloes of different types (1st photo). This one was actually planted by a friend of ours who looked after the house for 6 months. There is something about aloes which is very African - for me anyway. They are unpretentious, hardy, unfussy, prickly, possibly even a little intimidating, and then they have these exquisite flowers. They don't complain when you don't water them, don't feed them, ignore them - they just hang in there, and do their thing.

The 2nd photo, the white protea, was a real labour of love. I had already killed around 5 proteas with my ungreen fingers, including a couple of king proteas (p. cynaroides). Then someone told me that there are only a few types of protea which will grow in Fish Hoek - something to do with the ph of the "soil". This bush survived the building reonvations around 5 years back, so it must be tough. It finally gave us a few blooms the year before last and every year has been a bit better than the last. The flowers are not spectacular, but I take great pride in the fact that we have a flowering protea in our garden. Of course the pink ones next door (the 5th picture) are even nicer.

Then there is this succulent bush (3rd photo). I am not sure what it is called. It really never featured in the past because it was dwarfed by the Brazilian pepper. Since we cut down the pepper it has come ito its own and now gives us a good show of these lovely little pink slowers once a year. The nice thing is that they stick around for a long time.

Next we have the March lily (4th picture) which never blooms in March. Out of nowehere these really beautiful flowers appear. If we are unlucky they come up when the south easters are still blowing, in which case they don't last long at all. This year we were a little luckier. We just have one or two plants, but there is a patch of ground between the lanes of the M3 in Newlands where there must be hundreds and when they bloom it is truly spectacular.

Lastly, there are the clivias. We have a lot of them. They are a bit like the March lily in that they come up when you don't expect them, have a stunning show for a week or two and then wither in the sun and wind. I have given up worrying too much about them - like the aloes they seem happy to do their own thing. I just enjoy them when they decide to put on a show.

So here is my take on gardening - if we plant the plants which are supposed to be there, we'll have surprisingly beautiful gardens and suburbs, more time and money to spend on other things, more water in our water table, more birds and beetles and bees and other creepy crawlies and, who knows, even some guest appearances in Garden and Home.