Beautiful Ruttyruspolia
My Ruttyruspolia (semi-deciduous shrub, family acanthaceae) is currently flowering. It has scrambled into a nearby coral tree and the flowers are hanging down between the branches, in great swoops.
What tree is this?
This tree was growing in my garden when we moved in. Someone told me it was indigenous but I don’t have its proper name and couldn’t source it in any of my books. It has a thick, rough bark, thin leaves and long, pod-shaped seeds, but what I really like about it are its flowers. … Read more
Accidental Bee Photography
I was taking a photograph of a Wild Garlic (tulbaghia violacea or isihaqa) flower this morning and a bee flew into the shot as I took the photograph. Pretty cool.
The importance of feeding your soil (or why not to rake)
When we first move into our house we inherited a gardener who was very old-school in his methods. His idea of a job well done was a cleanly-raked garden with all the leaves, twigs and plant matter bagged for the Municipality to collect. As a consequence of this, the soil was sandy, red in colour … Read more
It’s an aloe!
I never knew this little guy was an aloe – although now that I think about it the red/orange flowers are very similar to the other, larger aloes I have. Its official name is aloe aristata and they were first ‘discovered’ in the Drakensburg in KwaZulu-Natal, but their habitat stretches from the eastern Karoo to … Read more