First plant your trees

by Diana Studer

- gardening for biodiversity

in Cape Town, South Africa

EDITED January 2014

Dozen for Diana 1

If you have been in your present garden for years, look back.  What you tried to plant, then you met that nice lady on the corner, with the beautiful garden ... Imagine a courtyard with a tree to sit under and a little wildlife pond. 

For Diana's Dozen my chosen plant is happy with our mediterranean climate, wet winter, and LONG HOT summer. I prefer indigenous/native South African fynbos. They must have something special, wild life friendly, flowers to pick, fragrance or interesting foliage.

My first Dozen was plants I loved, before I understood the Porterville garden.

Dozen for Diana 2009-2010

The second Dozen earned their place, good and happy in Porterville’s climate and soil.

Dozen for Diana 2012

Jurg, my Ungardener, has pencil and paper in hand as he sketches ideas for the new wildlife pond. The stepping stone path in place of the lawn gone. The water feature off the patio, to muffle the odd passing car, and the town close, not country far, neighbours. 

Olifantskop (elephant's head) from Paradise and Roses
with the Swiss flag flying

Plant trees when you move in, not hindsight we should have … While he does paint touch-ups, I am choosing the new plants. I have found nearby Good Hope Nursery. Trawling for old favourites and forgotten memories growing in our Camps Bay garden.

Rest and be Thankful
across Ungardening Pond

Aragon enjoying the sunset

If we would have asked the estate agent to find us a lush green garden, protected from the prevailing Southeaster … That first impression, curb appeal - waving above the fence are lush green trees! Step thru the gate, and the wind is hushed. Two star jasmine grow either side of the patio. I'm torn between exploring the garden with a bank of ferns and two flourishing potted hydrangeas, and the house.

Searsia sp.

We saw so many gardens with a neglected unloved swathe of ‘lawn’. A grim – It’s greenish and we mow it! 

Witkaree and Olifantskop

The main focal point from the living room, off the patio where we’ll put our Adirondacks – looks at two elderly bottlebrush trees. We see trunks, with a few ratty bits of green on top. Also the immediate neighbour’s kitchen window. First off, I want to remove those trees. In their place I want indigenous, for the birds. We’ll miss that seamless view from our trees to ‘our’ mountain.

Searsia crenata at Plum Creek

My first choice is Searsia which we once knew as Rhus. A diverse group of shrubs and trees, with trifoliate leaves. The Anacardiaceae family – with mango, cashew, American sumac and poison ivy, South Africa’s marula and Harpephyllum which bears TINY mangoes, your Rhus and our Searsia. The most appealing is the bergkaree corky bark and a graceful arching willow habit. But the dune crow-berry Searsia/Rhus crenata will be a dense shrub, which has tiny leaves - a more filigree lacy effect - giving the little birds somewhere to shelter from our Chocolat. 

Searsia crenata detail

Said I wanted fruit for birds. Reading the Western i.e. dry edition, of Bring Nature back to Your Garden by Charles and Julia Botha, I look back to realise I first fell in love with the ‘Rhus family’ because it makes fruit for birds. After carefully reading that bit again, went out with the camera, and found fruit. Looks delectable, no? Sadly it is only the size of a lentil!

Searsia lancea fruit

First choice – bergkaree Searsia leptodictya – delicate lime green leaves. Fragrant when crushed. Graceful arching habit, like a willow tree. Corky bark. Rest at peace, against a tree which has grown strong enough, to be a shoulder to lean on. At one with the universe, accepting the gift of the present, that moment of joy, being in the here and now.

Searsia leptodictya

Second choice the witkaree  Searsia lancea, karee meaning Karoo - or mead in the Khoi language, as Native Americans in turn used sumac berries. This is very like the first tree, but it tends to grow enthusiastically UP. We were planning on using three trees at  Rest and Be Thankful to make a green and shady growing bower. A place to rest and enjoy the balm of shade on a hot sunny day, while looking out across the pond. ‘Cool water for a thirsty land’.

Searsia lancea

Searsia lucida is a vigorous shrub with glossy leaves, this claimed half of our Camps Bay garden.

Searsia lucida large shrub

Searsia refracta has softer crumpled leaves. Looks more like a fruit bearing bush.

Searsia refracta shrub

We always knew these plants with their trifoliate leaves as Rhus. But they have been moved to Searsia. The books and websites say this is still being sorted out. The South African plants hybridise freely, and the leaf shape of any ‘given species’ varies, making it difficult for me to identify all of these accurately. But the true Rhus will ultimately include the  American Sumac and poison ivy ...

(PS all photos taken in our Porterville garden)

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First to join us is Alistair from snowy Aberdeen with his silver and gold hollies.
Second is Beth @ PlantPostings in Wisconsin with False rue anemone and its frilly leaves.
Third in we return to the Western Cape where My Cape Garden relishes her climbing Cape sweet pea.

Pictures by Jurg and Diana
text by Diana Studer
(also on Google Plus)
AKA Diana of Elephant's Eye (on False Bay)
- wildlife gardening in Porterville,
near Cape Town in South Africa

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