September 3, 1998
Coral trees are still in bloom but have peaked.
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow have started to bloom
Bougainvillea still good but shedding
Small-flowered red creeper in full bloom, all over tree next to sausage tree
Wild Pear blossoms turning brown
Hibiscus beginning to be quite profuse
Fiddle tree still splendid
The red ivories have lost their tiny blossoms and the bees have left
Little blue irises flowering around birdbath
The sausage tree still has quite a few deep red flowers, and new leaves are coming
The moonflowers are still in bloom
The red leafed tree near the swimming pool is showing a few leaves
No sign of leaves on the flame trees yet
___________________________________
End of September
Frangipani trying to come through
Corral trees leafing slowly
Roses blooming beautifully
Jasmine creeper in flower
Blue flowered creeper splendid
YTAT lost all blooms - before others in e.g. the Impeys' garden
Fence creeper flowering
Lemon and orange trees flowering - should have been pruned
Bohenia flowering rather feebly
Hibiscus doing well
Red ivories in full leaf
Bougainvillea continue to shed and look much thinner
Yellow flowers on groundcover around roses like a carpet
Little irises still blooming
Two yellow-woods transplanted to staff garden
Mid-October
Bushes and trees recovering from severe hail storm. A fresh green look everywhere, but little colour otherwise - partly because of the hail but maybe always at this season?
Bougainvillas have only a spattering of flowers and no leaves
Hibiscus still fairly sparse
What is maybe a fried egg tree in bloom in front of the cottage
Red flowers in the "wild flower bed" quite profuse
Blue bush flowering nicely
Roses still quite good
Corral creeper creeping up very slowly - too severely pruned?
Transplanted a red pincushion flower from the driveway under swimming pool red ivory
Frangipanis at various stages of leafing
Leaves on the flame trees - one flower spotted on a red flame
Plantings:
From Botanical Gdns:
White-flower bush against fence below/left of sleeper table
Succulent flowers in rockery bed
Thin-leaved iris in rockery bed
Small bush by filter house, near YTT
2 Yellowwoods doing okay
Late January (26th) 1999
Garden features:
* A deep green everywhere after record rains, with everything in full leaf, and leaves generally muting the colour display of otherwise fairly profuse smaller blossoms in some places - but occasional splashes of strong colour, notably...
* ...Flame trees have flaming red canopies and a flaming yellow, above full leaf, and dropping big floppy blossoms to carpet patches of lawn. gorgeous.
* ...Vivid large red leaves of 'pot plants' glowing out of each strong verdant arrangement of ferns and plants below each red ivory tree, and colourful lizzies v v busy
* Corral creeper is back in strong leaf spreading fast, and profuse pink flower - could have been cut back to even less!
* Transplanted ground cover on new slopes, of lawn extension and below pool paving, have carpeted beautifully (hardly yet flowering); so has new lawn around the pool,merging thick and green with the established lawn
* Canna bed (below fallen tree) looks good with yellow blossoms, at their peak early January, now seeding
* Wandering Jew is at its strongest and most handsome, swirling under trees and as ground cover
* Rockery bed is a promising feature, set off by spread of bright orange and yellow succulent Sundial portulaca (planted in October)opening to the sun - but bed looks thin when you come closer - it needs many more to be planted
* Two quite striking yellow-flowered bushes - the tall butterfly-leafed one with the bell-like flowers by the wildflower bed, and the shorter bush behind the fallen tree, with pointy leaves, and pixie-cap yellow flowers
* Euphorbia stump is prettily carpeted by tendrils of groundcover and ivy creeper
* Strikingly beautiful tiger irises, hiding in two tall thin clusters, behind pool pumphouse, and next to main bedroom window
Red ivories in full leaf, no sign of buds yet
Hibiscus, still one or two full flowers among the thick leaf
Bougainvillea, leafy with occasional small cluster of flower
Small yellow daisies spread in many places, above their thick
leaf, not as nice as the yellow carpet of bigger ones (now not blossoming, just leaves) under the roses...
Roses still there, they bud blossom and die in rapid cycle - big pinks on tall stalky bushes
The wildflower bed fairly profuse but not elegant, despite occasional barberton daisies, and the deep red stalk flowers
The red-leafed tree, knocked over by October wind, has been sawn short and propped back up - and a few clusters of red leaf and sappy branch suggest it will survive – (didn’t, finally died a few months later)
Scatter-seed wild lilies are shooting tall and starting to bud -next to them a small pretty bed, of white and yellow petalled flowers
The thick shrubs beside the rockery bed make a good display - one has quite profuse blue flowers, the other has yellow berries on its light-edged leaves now turning into strings of small blue blossom. lovely
Frangipanis are typical of the season's "leaf outdoes blossom" syndrome: small pink and yellow petals among large green leaves
Creeper over coral tree is looking strong and green
Fence hedges beside sleeper gate are not in flower, but full leaf
Topknot budding on the New Mexico penile cactus
Mamba bed has been given a good haircut - bullrushes will be back
Baby roses on back patio: pink one stalky, but in flower; the darker slightly less profuse
Iris by pool-paving in leaf, no buds
Tobacco plants flowering quite nicely beside pumphouse steps
Geraniums in fairly profuse flower in front pots - a bit stalky, not clustering nicely
Hydrangea in full leaf but no buds
Gardenia still giving a lovely flower now and then
Blue flowers on ugly but useful pumphouse creeper - which needs cutting and shaping
All patio and house potplants and ferns in good shape, except lovely succulent cluster in recess (see below).
African violet is producing a pink.
Inner patio: wall creepers flowering nicely; one mini tree flowering and starting to fruit, the other with a couple of complete fruits, but no buds; yellow hanging plant still flowering, other one (blue) not at all, and with some dead stalks
Plantings and transplantings
* Pincushion plant from driveway bush still looks healthy
* From Skukuza nursery, 2 impala lilies and marula died - eaten! thorny lily is there but doing nothing, flame creeper survives against veg garden area fence
* White-flower bush below sleeper table is okay, but not flowering or flourishing
* nearly all little baobabs transplanted into lawn extension slope have died (all others are flourishing, now starting to seed)
* Two transplanted yellowwoods doing okay in staff garden
* Wall hanging succulents doing fine, specially the one round the back
Not so great
Lemon and orange tree fruiting small and slow? - maybe not sprayed enough? Other lemon behind cottage shows no fruiting - unusual for this kind of lemon
YTaT: bigger one alongside fallen tree is flowering amid the leaves, but the effect is more leafy than flowery: small one by the pool pump has just a scattering of flowers. v disappointing - as is the strelitzia - hit by hail and refusing to recover, not a flower for many months. Yeoville wins hands down on these two
Succulent cluster in gallery wall recess, is gappy and black in places,needs cutting back and replanting in its holder
Inner patio hanging plant (blue flower) not flowering at all, and with some dead stalks
Coral tree leaves are worm-eaten. Gezani says it can happen to them this time of year, nothing special to do
End May 1999
This month, planted:
2 kudu lilies behind swimming pool table
rockery made and planted with cacti of different types
pool filter bed seeded with daisies
deep-dark-jungle front bed seeded with daisies
in Baynesiae bed, seeded more daisies and thinned out current ones, removed flying choker weeds
Bougainvilla in pot moved from inside patio to outside corner, near spare room door
White pear tree planted behind cottage, at the site of the failed Marula
Lichi tree planted in staff garden, next to mango tree
Hedge plants, orange and yellow, planted to augment the hedge at the ESKOM gate
Weeping Boer tree planted at right of entrance gate area, as you come in
Veg and herb garden planted with
Rocket x3, green fizzy x3, tarragon and savoury seedlings.
Seeds planted for pumpkins, red onions, coriander, rocket, dill, fenugreek
Gardenia bought, to be potted but can’t decide where
Hanging catstail put up in back patio
Bulala’ed…
2 of three large yellow poinsettias behind 3facesofeve (following zapping of 2/3 large ones in earlier months. Also a few months ago (end 98) large taxicanthus by fence)
1 poins. in bush below sleeper table
several in bush behind cottage
1 undistinguished tree crowding soft leaved bush near drive-way
Bougainvillea lifted to make arbour below cottage
Status…
Bird-bath foliage under red ivory still looking strong, busylizzies thinned out.
At sleeper table, clivias, budding or seeding? Nmot much joy there anyway.
Coral creepers have peaked, now Gezani says NOT to cut yet but looking untidy
All three hanging cacti doing fine, espcially back patio one
Bohenias beginning to bloom – purple one at right of driveway, white on the other side and this one profuse on top where sun catches it
Same sort of blossoming with coral tree near sleeper table, one or two blooms right at the top
Bougainvillea everywhere really lovely, except almost nothing on the left hand one above the garage
Aloes out of this world – cottage steps in full cry, clump next to bathroom still coming, behind cottage halfway, as in deepdarkjungle
Orange and lemon trees almost harvestable – give it another week or so, spraying seemed to work on citrus and they fruited reasonably, no ape vandalism yet.
Thin tall grey-blue succulent flowering, large head of orange flowerets, something akin to an aloe in looks/colour
Kapok tree still very sparsely sprinkled with flowers, can’t help feeling there won’t be as good a show this year as last
Purple bush near 3facesofeve flowering a little, perhaps still somewhat traumatised from Nussey move cut-back.
Is the cactus outside the gallery sliding door poisonous milk weed as Scot says? It looks v. pretty…
Heini and Lisa complained of no birds – but now they’re starting to flock back, 2 kingfishers pool diving today, and lbjs beginning to congregate around seed table, a few bulbuls but no forked tailed drongos. As for loeries, all sound and no sight.
Hoof marks in newly planted ddj bed, Gezani says bushbuck.
No sign of duiker visits near house
Monkeys visiting regularly but keeping their distance
August 16, 2000
July was one of the coldest on record – we had frost and the leaves of the flame trees and a few other trees were burnt – but the lawn is not as brown as in previous years, because of all the rain, maybe?
Right now
The corral trees very splendid
The YTT beginning
The Jasmine over the fence between us and staff house gorgeous
The Azaleas blooming, red and mauve
Found some orchid buds near the deep dark jungle, the others (especially the ones we’ve planted, of course) doing b. all.
The white bohenia in full, lovely bloom
The fuschias and dwarf arums planted in the swimming pool bed doing well
No sign yet of fried egg tree bossoming
April 1 2001
Trial and error continue – but we’re learning!
Success, after half a lifetime! With African violets – simple really, give them food regularly and water from the bottom. Three lovely pots on kitchen window sill.
Last month, the Petra was lovely; the pump house YTT also lovely, but only lasted a week, the one in Yeoville went on and on…too hot? Now the one near the 3faces of Eve flowering well.
No more flowers on the flame trees but they were glorious for two months at least. One solitary blossom on the kapok tree – it’s full of buds but taking its time, the one down the valley in full spate.
Corral creeper still good – though not as profuse as last year. Azalea in sleeper bed doing well – yellow cape honeysuckle hedge was good last month and the new bushes thriving; now waiting for the orange ones to flower, coming slowly.
September 15 2001
Flowers, shrubs and trees flowering at the moment:
Bougainvillea – profusely, except for the left hand one at the garage door
Wild pear, in their chenille phase
Coral trees are still in bloom but have peaked.
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow have started to bloom
Bougainvillea still good but shedding
Small-flowered red creeper in full bloom, all over tree next to sausage tree
Wild Pear blossoms turning brown
Hibiscus beginning to be quite profuse
Fiddle tree still splendid
The red ivories have lost their tiny blossoms and the bees have left
Little blue irises flowering around birdbath
The sausage tree still has quite a few deep red flowers, and new leaves are coming
The moonflowers are still in bloom
The red leafed tree near the swimming pool is showing a few leaves
No sign of leaves on the flame trees yet
___________________________________
End of September
Frangipani trying to come through
Corral trees leafing slowly
Roses blooming beautifully
Jasmine creeper in flower
Blue flowered creeper splendid
YTAT lost all blooms - before others in e.g. the Impeys' garden
Fence creeper flowering
Lemon and orange trees flowering - should have been pruned
Bohenia flowering rather feebly
Hibiscus doing well
Red ivories in full leaf
Bougainvillea continue to shed and look much thinner
Yellow flowers on groundcover around roses like a carpet
Little irises still blooming
Two yellow-woods transplanted to staff garden
Mid-October
Bushes and trees recovering from severe hail storm. A fresh green look everywhere, but little colour otherwise - partly because of the hail but maybe always at this season?
Bougainvillas have only a spattering of flowers and no leaves
Hibiscus still fairly sparse
What is maybe a fried egg tree in bloom in front of the cottage
Red flowers in the "wild flower bed" quite profuse
Blue bush flowering nicely
Roses still quite good
Corral creeper creeping up very slowly - too severely pruned?
Transplanted a red pincushion flower from the driveway under swimming pool red ivory
Frangipanis at various stages of leafing
Leaves on the flame trees - one flower spotted on a red flame
Plantings:
From Botanical Gdns:
White-flower bush against fence below/left of sleeper table
Succulent flowers in rockery bed
Thin-leaved iris in rockery bed
Small bush by filter house, near YTT
2 Yellowwoods doing okay
Late January (26th) 1999
Garden features:
* A deep green everywhere after record rains, with everything in full leaf, and leaves generally muting the colour display of otherwise fairly profuse smaller blossoms in some places - but occasional splashes of strong colour, notably...
* ...Flame trees have flaming red canopies and a flaming yellow, above full leaf, and dropping big floppy blossoms to carpet patches of lawn. gorgeous.
* ...Vivid large red leaves of 'pot plants' glowing out of each strong verdant arrangement of ferns and plants below each red ivory tree, and colourful lizzies v v busy
* Corral creeper is back in strong leaf spreading fast, and profuse pink flower - could have been cut back to even less!
* Transplanted ground cover on new slopes, of lawn extension and below pool paving, have carpeted beautifully (hardly yet flowering); so has new lawn around the pool,merging thick and green with the established lawn
* Canna bed (below fallen tree) looks good with yellow blossoms, at their peak early January, now seeding
* Wandering Jew is at its strongest and most handsome, swirling under trees and as ground cover
* Rockery bed is a promising feature, set off by spread of bright orange and yellow succulent Sundial portulaca (planted in October)opening to the sun - but bed looks thin when you come closer - it needs many more to be planted
* Two quite striking yellow-flowered bushes - the tall butterfly-leafed one with the bell-like flowers by the wildflower bed, and the shorter bush behind the fallen tree, with pointy leaves, and pixie-cap yellow flowers
* Euphorbia stump is prettily carpeted by tendrils of groundcover and ivy creeper
* Strikingly beautiful tiger irises, hiding in two tall thin clusters, behind pool pumphouse, and next to main bedroom window
Red ivories in full leaf, no sign of buds yet
Hibiscus, still one or two full flowers among the thick leaf
Bougainvillea, leafy with occasional small cluster of flower
Small yellow daisies spread in many places, above their thick
leaf, not as nice as the yellow carpet of bigger ones (now not blossoming, just leaves) under the roses...
Roses still there, they bud blossom and die in rapid cycle - big pinks on tall stalky bushes
The wildflower bed fairly profuse but not elegant, despite occasional barberton daisies, and the deep red stalk flowers
The red-leafed tree, knocked over by October wind, has been sawn short and propped back up - and a few clusters of red leaf and sappy branch suggest it will survive – (didn’t, finally died a few months later)
Scatter-seed wild lilies are shooting tall and starting to bud -next to them a small pretty bed, of white and yellow petalled flowers
The thick shrubs beside the rockery bed make a good display - one has quite profuse blue flowers, the other has yellow berries on its light-edged leaves now turning into strings of small blue blossom. lovely
Frangipanis are typical of the season's "leaf outdoes blossom" syndrome: small pink and yellow petals among large green leaves
Creeper over coral tree is looking strong and green
Fence hedges beside sleeper gate are not in flower, but full leaf
Topknot budding on the New Mexico penile cactus
Mamba bed has been given a good haircut - bullrushes will be back
Baby roses on back patio: pink one stalky, but in flower; the darker slightly less profuse
Iris by pool-paving in leaf, no buds
Tobacco plants flowering quite nicely beside pumphouse steps
Geraniums in fairly profuse flower in front pots - a bit stalky, not clustering nicely
Hydrangea in full leaf but no buds
Gardenia still giving a lovely flower now and then
Blue flowers on ugly but useful pumphouse creeper - which needs cutting and shaping
All patio and house potplants and ferns in good shape, except lovely succulent cluster in recess (see below).
African violet is producing a pink.
Inner patio: wall creepers flowering nicely; one mini tree flowering and starting to fruit, the other with a couple of complete fruits, but no buds; yellow hanging plant still flowering, other one (blue) not at all, and with some dead stalks
Plantings and transplantings
* Pincushion plant from driveway bush still looks healthy
* From Skukuza nursery, 2 impala lilies and marula died - eaten! thorny lily is there but doing nothing, flame creeper survives against veg garden area fence
* White-flower bush below sleeper table is okay, but not flowering or flourishing
* nearly all little baobabs transplanted into lawn extension slope have died (all others are flourishing, now starting to seed)
* Two transplanted yellowwoods doing okay in staff garden
* Wall hanging succulents doing fine, specially the one round the back
Not so great
Lemon and orange tree fruiting small and slow? - maybe not sprayed enough? Other lemon behind cottage shows no fruiting - unusual for this kind of lemon
YTaT: bigger one alongside fallen tree is flowering amid the leaves, but the effect is more leafy than flowery: small one by the pool pump has just a scattering of flowers. v disappointing - as is the strelitzia - hit by hail and refusing to recover, not a flower for many months. Yeoville wins hands down on these two
Succulent cluster in gallery wall recess, is gappy and black in places,needs cutting back and replanting in its holder
Inner patio hanging plant (blue flower) not flowering at all, and with some dead stalks
Coral tree leaves are worm-eaten. Gezani says it can happen to them this time of year, nothing special to do
End May 1999
This month, planted:
2 kudu lilies behind swimming pool table
rockery made and planted with cacti of different types
pool filter bed seeded with daisies
deep-dark-jungle front bed seeded with daisies
in Baynesiae bed, seeded more daisies and thinned out current ones, removed flying choker weeds
Bougainvilla in pot moved from inside patio to outside corner, near spare room door
White pear tree planted behind cottage, at the site of the failed Marula
Lichi tree planted in staff garden, next to mango tree
Hedge plants, orange and yellow, planted to augment the hedge at the ESKOM gate
Weeping Boer tree planted at right of entrance gate area, as you come in
Veg and herb garden planted with
Rocket x3, green fizzy x3, tarragon and savoury seedlings.
Seeds planted for pumpkins, red onions, coriander, rocket, dill, fenugreek
Gardenia bought, to be potted but can’t decide where
Hanging catstail put up in back patio
Bulala’ed…
2 of three large yellow poinsettias behind 3facesofeve (following zapping of 2/3 large ones in earlier months. Also a few months ago (end 98) large taxicanthus by fence)
1 poins. in bush below sleeper table
several in bush behind cottage
1 undistinguished tree crowding soft leaved bush near drive-way
Bougainvillea lifted to make arbour below cottage
Status…
Bird-bath foliage under red ivory still looking strong, busylizzies thinned out.
At sleeper table, clivias, budding or seeding? Nmot much joy there anyway.
Coral creepers have peaked, now Gezani says NOT to cut yet but looking untidy
All three hanging cacti doing fine, espcially back patio one
Bohenias beginning to bloom – purple one at right of driveway, white on the other side and this one profuse on top where sun catches it
Same sort of blossoming with coral tree near sleeper table, one or two blooms right at the top
Bougainvillea everywhere really lovely, except almost nothing on the left hand one above the garage
Aloes out of this world – cottage steps in full cry, clump next to bathroom still coming, behind cottage halfway, as in deepdarkjungle
Orange and lemon trees almost harvestable – give it another week or so, spraying seemed to work on citrus and they fruited reasonably, no ape vandalism yet.
Thin tall grey-blue succulent flowering, large head of orange flowerets, something akin to an aloe in looks/colour
Kapok tree still very sparsely sprinkled with flowers, can’t help feeling there won’t be as good a show this year as last
Purple bush near 3facesofeve flowering a little, perhaps still somewhat traumatised from Nussey move cut-back.
Is the cactus outside the gallery sliding door poisonous milk weed as Scot says? It looks v. pretty…
Heini and Lisa complained of no birds – but now they’re starting to flock back, 2 kingfishers pool diving today, and lbjs beginning to congregate around seed table, a few bulbuls but no forked tailed drongos. As for loeries, all sound and no sight.
Hoof marks in newly planted ddj bed, Gezani says bushbuck.
No sign of duiker visits near house
Monkeys visiting regularly but keeping their distance
August 16, 2000
July was one of the coldest on record – we had frost and the leaves of the flame trees and a few other trees were burnt – but the lawn is not as brown as in previous years, because of all the rain, maybe?
Right now
The corral trees very splendid
The YTT beginning
The Jasmine over the fence between us and staff house gorgeous
The Azaleas blooming, red and mauve
Found some orchid buds near the deep dark jungle, the others (especially the ones we’ve planted, of course) doing b. all.
The white bohenia in full, lovely bloom
The fuschias and dwarf arums planted in the swimming pool bed doing well
No sign yet of fried egg tree bossoming
April 1 2001
Trial and error continue – but we’re learning!
Success, after half a lifetime! With African violets – simple really, give them food regularly and water from the bottom. Three lovely pots on kitchen window sill.
Last month, the Petra was lovely; the pump house YTT also lovely, but only lasted a week, the one in Yeoville went on and on…too hot? Now the one near the 3faces of Eve flowering well.
No more flowers on the flame trees but they were glorious for two months at least. One solitary blossom on the kapok tree – it’s full of buds but taking its time, the one down the valley in full spate.
Corral creeper still good – though not as profuse as last year. Azalea in sleeper bed doing well – yellow cape honeysuckle hedge was good last month and the new bushes thriving; now waiting for the orange ones to flower, coming slowly.
September 15 2001
Flowers, shrubs and trees flowering at the moment:
Bougainvillea – profusely, except for the left hand one at the garage door
Wild pear, in their chenille phase
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