Miracle bulbs

AVERY AVENUE'S CAPE HYACINTHS

For the third time in about 6 years I found a clump of bright orange bulbs that just appear, in different places, on pavements in the Barbarossa area of Constantia (between Doordrift, Spaanschemat and Kendal roads and the motorway). This time I took a photo of them and sent it to Graham Duncan, a Kirstenbosch horticulturist who is also a world authority on lachenalias (Cape hyacinths) and other bulbs.
He identified them as Lachenalia bulbifera – rooinaeltjie. Apparently they would have been naturally occurring in the sand plain fynbos that used to occur here before any houses were built, and the fact that they still come up after decades he says is a miracle!
I sent a letter and a photo to the Constantiaberg Bulletin when they were flowering last August, but they didn't think it interesting enough for publication - crime it seems, is what they like to focus on! Not tenacious survivors of our world famous indigenous flora.

These cheerful little Cape hyacinths, although not all that unusual, are nevertheless endemic to the Cape Floral Region and occur from Klawer (near Citrusdal on the West Coast) to Mossel Bay. They flower from April to September, and are found on sandy slopes and flats.

Lachenalia bulbifera was one of the first Cape bulbs to be introduced to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew from material collected at the Cape by Carl Thunberg in 1774!

For more information on Lachenalia bulbifera and how to grow them, go to http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantklm/lachbulb.htm

Mulch ado about nothing

In the December issue of Veld & Flora there was a really interesting letter from Tony Rebelo, SANBI botanist, about the use of compost and mulch in gardens with sandy soil like the Cape Flats sand that we have in Avery Ave. It has always bothered me that people around here spend so much time watering, composting and mulching and bemoaning our poor, "water repellant oil soil" as they try to create the perfect English garden complete with rolling green lawn and roses. Surely we should be developing a waterwise, Cape Flats garden using some of the thousands of mind-bogglingly beautiful fynbos plants that grew here before the land was developed. There is so much that thrives in this soil with no need to provide extra water or compost. Just look at this beautiful little Veltheimia bracteata or winter forest lily, that comes up every year in the shade of our large Cape May or Cape confetti Coleonema album bushes - one of our local fynbos indigenous buchus.

Tony writes:

"Mulching is being promoted extensively as a solution to gardening problems. And yet I wonder if it is not the cause of many gardeners being unable to grow many Fynbos plants. I have heard of people who used to have great Erica and Buchu collections, and now cannot grow them any more. Even at Kirstenbosch, many species that used to be grown in profusion can no longer be grown in the Protea and Erica beds.
I suspect that part of the problem is the tendency to use mulch. Although mulch has many positive effects, some of these are in fact also negative. It suppresses weeds! But at the same time it suppresses spring annuals. If I expect nice displays of annuals daisies or heliophilas, I wont get them with a mulch – bare soil is essential. Mulch also contains many bacteria that help maintain the soil: among these are pathogens that affect susceptible plants. And mulch, unless purchased from a reputable dealer, also contains slugs, millipedes and other denizens of tiny seedlings."

So why don't fynbos plants like mulch?
Tony says it is because fynbos plants evolved with fire, and after a fire the soil is sterilized and there are no pathogens or animals to eat the seeds. All the seedlings grow in a sterile medium, and it may take years for pathogens to build up, by which time the plants have set seed and the next generation is safely stored in the seedbank. Add mulch, and suddenly there is a moist layer that helps the growth and spread of pathogens, such as Phytophothora root rot, a fatal problem to many indigenous plants.
Tony's garden is on Cape Flats sand. The good news is that our soil is actually self-mulching in effect!

"Every summer as it dries out the soil becomes hydrophobic. Bacteria effectively coat the grains with oily secretions which stops any water from being lost from the soil. Water loss – the main reason given for using mulches – is thus effectively provided by nature free of charge. This sealing layer lasts all summer until the heavy autumn rains wash out the oils and allow the soils to soak up the winter rains. Where new plants have been planted, keeping the soil wet by watering the plants prevents the sealing layer from forming allowing water penetration into the soil only around the new plants.

Don’t expect any nurseryman to agree with this - it is provided by nature for free –it cannot be sold at a profit like mulch!

I have no problems with growing ericas and buchus: I don’t use woody mulch, but rely on nature to provide the sealant effect for me. The soil provides no home for slugs and pests, nor does it assist with the spread of pathogens by not providing a warm moist covering during summer when most Fynbos plants are dormant anyway. Sure some sand does blow around and into my swimming pool. But it is a small price to pay for seeing ericas, buchus and proteas flowering in profusion, not to mention the spring annuals that abound. Of course mulch is needed in European-style gardens and for forest species. But anyone on the Cape Flats who wants to have an indigenous, waterwise garden and who uses mulch is wasting their money!"

A buchu bush in full flower.

Citrus swallowtail butterfly in Avery Ave

I noticed that a bright green caterpillar was eating the leaves of my ornamental miniature orange tree, and the next thing I knew, it had pupated and hatched into this extraordinarily beautiful citrus swallowtail butterfly. I bought the little tree for R60 at Ferndale Nursery on a special offer, last April, and since then it has been an absolute delight, going from little green balls to showy miniature oranges. And now this... WHAT A BARGAIN!

My miniature orange tree pot plant with a few leaves showing evidence of the citrus swallowtail caterpillar's munchings.

The empty pupal case, well camouflaged at the base of the tree. According to Andre Claassens, Cape Town's lepidopterist extraordinaire, the pupa demonstrates clearly how, while being formed, it adapts its colour to match that of that of its immediate environment. Sometimes the pupae are quite light in colour, sometimes green or of mixed colours. Amazing.