I had such good intentions to blog my way through South Africa, and the five blog entries I managed represented about as many days. The first days. So many places, so little time to type!

 
 
The symbol of Kirstenbosh, the National Botanical Garden in Capetown, is the Bird of Paradise. An amazing “albino” (which is missing the red pigment and has the still has the yellow pigment) was released a few years ago as Strelitzia reginae ‘Mandela’s Gold.’ We were thrilled to see this in several places around Kirstenbosch and [...]

  
Although I have been to Capetown on all of my six trips to South Africa, this was the first one where I managed to actually get to the top of Table Mountains. 

If there were a beauty contest for cities, Capetown would surely be in the final cut, and anyone visiting this week would give Capetown the crown, The weather changes as quickly as New England this time of year. We have had torrential rain, crystal clear calm days with aquamarine skies, overcast and contemplative weather, and blustery [...]

   
These first two pictures depict a formal garden planted in a neighborhood park not far from the United States ambassador’s residence in Pretoria. Never have I seen such meticulously clipped plants in such brilliant, contrasting colors! South Africa was first colonized by Europeans creating a garden to provision ships, and people have come here to garden [...]

I worried — why leave North America at the height of late summer, with the veggies overflowing in the garden, the leaves turning…the answer is Africa in springtime. What a glorious time to be here and get a second spring in the same year. Temperatures in Johannesburg and Pretoria were perfect, the days sunny, [...]

Is it a coincidence that Walt Whitman named his revolutionary collection of poetry “Leaves of Grass”? Grass is the dominant vegetation in our region, and ornamental grasses have revolutionized horticulture across America in recent decades. If I had to pick a favorite grass, right now

Highway 76 in Sept.

We feel we must go to Arizona or California in the spring or to the tundra in July to see masses of wildflowers…fiddlesticks!

It must have been 10 years ago when I first saw Scheer’s stunning cactus bloom on Dryland Mesa here at the Gardens: I had to have it! The extraordinary blend of gold and amber reminded me of the heady contents of whisky bottles, or trout streams in late summer

 
Few plants can match the giant Turkish Pelargonium (Pelargonium quercetorum) for drama or rarity. You’re not likely to find this in any other American botanic garden,