The ‘project’ that caused my frequent absence from WordPress over the last six months had several interlinked phases.
Continue reading “To pastures new”
If you were asked to design a festively flowering tree for the southern hemisphere Christmas summer holidays you would be hard pressed to come up with something better than the pompon tree (Dais cotinifolia).
Continue reading “Festive holiday pompons”
Some of these photos taken in our garden last year strike me as being little bit quirky. So here they are, without titles or captions, to provide a little undemanding diversion.
Continue reading “Random quirkiness in the garden“
The lovely soft looking flowers that don’t last long on the plant make it surprising that wild irises of the Dietes genus are in fact incredibly hardy, to the extent that they are a familiar sight in mass plantings in urbanised places such as business parks and shopping malls.
Continue reading “Introducing three wild irises”
I am saying it with flowers this week – picks from our garden over the past year or so. The header image is of the forest bell-bush, commonly referred to by its beautiful botanical name Mackaya bella. Like many of the plants featured in this post it is endemic to southern Africa.
Continue reading “Flower picks from the garden”
As winter solstice approaches, cold weather has enveloped the country – earlier than usual and colder too than in recent years. The cold front changed our sunny winter days to overcast, and last night brought some rain.
Continue reading “Winter solstice: Pivoting towards the sun”
The usually blue-flowered Agapanthus brightens South African gardens, and many gardens around the world, during the summer. It is an easy-going plant that I pretty much take for granted, so I was surprised to find that its classification has been a complex issue for botanists. Continue reading “Agapanthus: A true blue summer flowerer”
Although I have featured this plant before, I thought its flowers decorative enough for another look. The African Dog Rose has elegantly showy flowers. Continue reading “Weekly Photo Find: African Dog Rose”
Today is winter solstice, here down south. The day was warm and sunny, and brightened by the winter-flowering plants. Even though we don’t suffer from frigid temperatures I still appreciate that from tomorrow, the days will start lengthening, albeit imperceptibly at first. Continue reading “Southern Solstice: Celebrating with aloes”
letting nature back in 