Article & Photos by Andrea Durrheim
“A garden requires patient labour and attention. Plants do not grow merely to
satisfy ambitions or to fulfil good intentions. They thrive because someone
expended effort on them.” Liberty Hyde Bailey
T
he year speeds by marked
by the changing array of
blooms in our gardens. As
the season gets hotter,
plants which have flowering that is
triggered by cooler weather (such
as Osteospermums) give their last
flush of flowers for the season and
plants that love long days and hotter weather like the beautiful Geraniums (bush or ivy leafed Pelargoniums) begin to display at their very
best.
If you want a changing selection of
colour and prefer to buy plants in
bloom, you will need to visit your
garden centre regularly to see
what’s in flower. However, buying
plants in flower also means that
your plants will only settle in during
the coming year and will be at their
showiest in the following year. It
Pelargonium zonale
‘Americana’ series
also makes it tricky to establish
plants that flower in the hottest
part of the year when plenty of after care is needed in order to ensure
their survival.
Ideally, now is the time to begin
planting your late summer to autumn colour, but how will you
know which indigenous plants are
going to be in flower? Well, Agri
Kultuur/Culture magazine is here to
help. Let’s take a look at some of
the plants that are flowering now
and some of the plants you should
consider planting now so that
they’re ready to beat the heat and
give you blooms during that awkward January to March period.
Now in flower
As already mentioned, Geraniums
(Pelargoniums) will be giving their
Geranium incanum
best from now on. Forget any preconceptions you might have had
about Geraniums, especially bush
Geraniums, there are some exquisite hybrids out there these days.
There are also some superb species
types. These are hardier than the
hybrids and last longer in the garden. If they get leggy, give them a
fairly hard cut to rejuvenate the
plants.
Some of the wild Pelargoniums
have smaller flowers than the hybrids, but some, like the stunning
Pelargonium cucullatum, produce
really showy blooms and need less
maintenance than the hybrid types.
The smaller flowered species like
Pelargonium reniforme or Pelargonium ionidiflorum should also not
be ignored. These two species create a low mound of foliage topped
Osteospernum fruticosum