Sprig » wild dagga

Pruning tips and tricks

Niall — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:52:17 +0000

A while back Sonya asked my advice on pruning her Wild Dagga. “Hack it down close to the base,” I told her and I have now taken a couple of pics to illustrate what I meant.

I must stress that this isn’t professional advice and there may be a better way of pruning but it works for me. Every year the Wild Dagga grows back fuller and bushier.

Wild Dagga ready for the chop!

Chopped ...

Steps to an indigenous garden..

mol-d — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:31:25 +0000

I recently visited my friend’s mom who has an almost entirely indigenous garden, transformed in just three years and last year named ‘Runner Up – Best Indigenous Garden’ in the Pam Golding Properties/Home Loans from Absa Gardens of Pride competition.

Creating an indigenous garden can be a daunting task. I have taken a load of photos of this garden and will post them for identification and discussion. Hopefully, this will give us a better idea of the plants we might like to introduce into our own gardens.

First up, a take on wild dagga… Has anyone seen this cream variation before? It was the first time I have come across it.

Wild dagga variations

Wild dagga (cream)

Wild dagga gone wild!

Niall — Sat, 16 May 2009 09:45:03 +0000

This is a follow-on from Sonya’s earlier post, showing my wild dagga flowering profusely. I also started with a small twig of a plant which has now grown into this great bush.

Wild dagga gone wild!

Wild dagga flowering profusely.

Wild dagga - not for smoking!

Leonotis Leonurus

Sonya — Thu, 14 May 2009 05:24:16 +0000

A rather beautiful name for a somewhat sparse green bush that Roger has accused of being a ‘weed’. However, in the last few days Leonotis (as we’ll call her) has been pushing out furry orange spider legs from her green foliage and making quite a show of herself. Some call her lion’s tail, another site said Leonurus means ‘lion’s ears’, others label her ‘wild dagga’. I found a site in the US expousing her legal status and recommending that you “don’t operate heavy machinery under the influence” – one of the more sensible ones hinted that she is rather a poor substitute for tobacco and has been smoked as such for aeons (possibly even by the bush men, yet another site boasts). So what a checkered past our Leonotis has, when all she wants is the peace to be in nature and do what she does best… shine!

Incy wincy spider