Our False Bay garden in September

 by Diana Studer

- gardening for biodiversity

 in Cape Town, South Africa

 

Our garden is lush and green. The Ungardener likes trees, and we want a peaceful green view from all our windows. We have a mix of commonorgarden exotics, with indigenous to South Africa. Now refocusing on Strandveld thicket (new page)

 

September in daisies

Daisies in happy blue Felicia. New white Osteospermum fruticosum. Cosmopolitan golden Hypochaeris - food for bees, and young leaves are edible (haven't tried that?!) Soft yellow climbing Senecio macroglossus. Pink bud to white Syncarpha.

 

September bulbs

Purple and white Babiana. Repeat for a delicate thug Melasphaerula graminea. Spanish bluebell. Somehow lime gold and cream Albuca reminds me of bluebells. Barely yellow Gladiolus tristis prefers its feet in water.

 

For Through the Garden Gate with Sarah Down by the Sea in Dorset a line of dusky pink Veltheimia undeterred by today's wind.

 

Veltheimia in September

Through the kitchen door I admire coral tuberous begonia. On our side of the front palisade fence scarlet pelargoniums blaze. Nasturtiums and Californian poppies add their support.

 

Blazing September flowers

Every time I pass Buddleja salviifolia that waft of honey makes my heart sing! On the far side of the garden a different Buddleja glomerata with limy grey leaves has tiny yellow flowers. Burgundy chocolate flowers and glaucous leaves, unique pair, Melianthus major. Coral aloe blooming now (our third aloe to be followed by emerging maculata buds)

 

Drama from September shrubs

Turning to pale and interesting. Pink bells of Dombeya burgessiae. Glassy bottle green leaves are why I chose Diospyros whyteana - but this year we have the first little furled white bells (there will be bladdernuts). Newly planted Coleonema album first flowers (will be a shrub covered in white with fragrant leaves). Again buchu fragrant but garlic this time Agathosma apiculata. Alongside the Washing Pergola is a sweep of white pelargonium, making for a moonlight garden towards evening.

 

Moved 2 Hypoestes aristata seedlings against our bedroom wall to break up the expanse of Cyperus albo-striatus.

 

Pale and interesting September shrubs

My three roses shrugging off winter and moving into spring.

 

Roses in September

I have five new plants - again lowland fynbos from Fynbos Life nursery at Muizenberg. Took me most of yesterday to carve open spaces for them.

 

Agathosma ciliaris. Buchu, leaves smell of anise. Compact so planted at the centre of the Washing Pergola. White or mauve flowers.

 

Helichrysum pandurifolium oval grey leaves, mouse ears wrapped around stem at their base. To keep the Dusty Miller hedge company.

 

Pelargonium betulinum camphor scented (interesting shaped oval to elliptic) leaves. Pink or white flowers. Found on coastal dunes. Between the buchu and Bauhinia outside the guestroom.

 

Ursinia paleacea yellow daisies want damp sand full sun. Near Mandela's Gold Strelitzia

 

Finally a plant I have missed from Camps Bay where we had the silvery leaves. Leucospermum conocarpodendron viridum - yellow pincushion. Local subspecies (Southeast of Devil's Peak) Deep green and glabrous = smooth leaves. Near threatened. Pollinated by Cape sugarbirds. Between fiddlewood and Buddleja .

 

New Lowland Fynbossies

Adult hadedas bellow and roar, but these two juveniles are ever so polite. Murmuring very softly Feed me? Please. Please, feed me?

 

Hadeda juniors

A shallow bowl with a sloping rock, where a female Cape sparrow enjoyed her bath.

 

Female Cape sparrow bathing

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