“The behaviour of plants is indeed inexplicable. It breaks all the rules; and that is what makes gardening so endlessly various and interesting.” – Vita Sackville West
“Why,” a Bergvliet gardener asked me recently, “is my Murraya exotica in full flower in winter?” And in January, she was surprised to find some of her clivias flowering.
Similarly, in my Simon’s Town garden, I have a tall Melianthus major which should have been cut right down at the end of summer, when its leaves become bedraggled and spotty, but instead it is now looking its best, with large, serrated leaves making a fine, blue-grey contrast with surrounding shrubs. Among these is another out-of-season oddity, a hibiscus still in bloom, whose newly opened flowers often fall prematurely to the ground.
Pausing to watch one day, I noticed sunbirds and white-eyes busily boring holes into the backs of the flowers, thus finding short-cuts to the nectar supply.
A gardener who had a resident tortoise told me that it would feast on fallen hibiscus flowers with relish, adding: “He chose only the pink ones.”
Our gardens are an endless source of fascination.
Our wintry environment is lit up with vibrant candelabras of aloes in glowing shades of red, orange and yellow, together with yellow euryops daisies and geelbos (leucadendrons).
One of the showiest of the latter species is the golden conebush, (Leucadendron laureolum), a hardy, fine choice for the indigenous garden. A smaller species is L salignum, which is very variable, with foliage ranging from creamy-yellow to vivid scarlet.
A West Coast nursery has specialised in developing wonderful hybrids and cultivars of proteaceae, under the Arnelia label. Among its leucadendrons is “Yellow Devil”, the male form of a salignum hybrid, and “Red Devil”, which is the female counterpart. These two reach about a metre in height, whereas “Jester”, a variegated form of the well-known “Safari Sunset”, will grow up to 1.5m. Its foliage remains attractive throughout the year, and in winter it has the added attraction of scarlet tips.
“Inca Gold” is another tall hybrid.
Leucadendrons need good drainage, plenty of sunshine and free air movement around them, and most of them like an acid soil.
Another foliage shrub that looks striking at this time of year is the duranta “Sheena’s Gold”, which performs best in full sunshine.
Unlike other durantas, which originate from Central America, it does not bear flowers, thorns or “golden dewdrop” berries, but concentrates all its energies on producing a blaze of golden leaves.
If you prefer silver to gold, especially in a small garden, you could try some herbs like lavender (grown easily from cuttings), sage, santolina and the beautiful, silvery-blue “herb of grace”, Jackman’s Blue rue, beloved by flower-arrangers. - Cape Argus