Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2021 i The Gardener Magazine

Very sadly, a very long-time gardening friend, Nancy Gardiner, passed away during the last week of December 2020. Many of you would have seen our Facebook post about this legendary gardener; for those of you who did not, please indulge me as I share with you a few of my fondest memories of Nancy. Of course, everyone in the gardening world knew the name Nancy Gardiner. While I was still a young seedling in the gardening world, working at Dunrobin Garden Centre in Botha’s Hill, KwaZulu-Natal, Nancy would often visit the nursery. This was a BIG deal for me: a celebrity gardener, author of books and photographer in our own garden centre! Well, needless to say, I stuck to her like glue, asking questions, helping move plants where I could…

1 Working with accessories in small gardens A bold, eye-catching container or feature in a small garden can be far more effective than a collection of smaller items. The same principle applies to the texture of plants in a small space. Choose a few plants with large, interesting foliage and combine these with more delicate plant material for an interesting planting scheme. 2 Using mulch Ensure that the soil is always covered with either a thick layer of compost, a layer of small to medium-sized leaves or with a lovely selection of groundcovers. This covering will insulate the soil against the heat of the sun and damaging wind, and will also help to keep weeds to a minimum. 3 Structuring garden beds Wide garden beds may seem daunting initially, but…

Having made roses more available locally, the next step was to show that growing roses is easy. For 50 years Ludwig has criss-crossed the country spreading that message, through talks or by judging at shows and gardens in towns, villages and cities. He still learns from the questions he is asked and from seeing how roses grow in different climatic regions. This is his recipe for success: Water deeply at least once a week, and twice a week in very hot weather. Keep soil well aerated with organic material so that water reaches the roots. Use mulch to cool the roots and reduce evaporation. Fertilise once a month from August to April with Vigorosa, or use controlled-release Vigolonger fertiliser. Control pests by spraying every two weeks with organic Ludwig’s Insect…

Magnolia grandiflora, as its name suggests, is grown around the world as a large and magnificent ornamental tree, known for its glossy leaves with velvety brown undersides as well as the huge white/ivory flowers that are some 25cm across. But most of us just don’t have enough space in our gardens for a tree that in its natural habitat grows in excess of 30m tall. That’s where ‘Little Gem’ comes into the picture, offering all the magnificence of its big daddy species but in a compact package just right for smaller gardens and containers. ‘Little Gem’ is an upright-growing small tree growing 6 – 8m tall and featuring perfect, fragrant white flowers 12 – 15cm in diameter that bloom mostly in early autumn and late summer. In the last decade,…

Hailing from Central America, flamboyant bedding dahlias are among the most popular and showy summer choices for single or mixed colour mass planting, decorative borders and attractive containers. They are readily available, grow with minimal attention and offer long-term variety in a myriad of colours. Versatile, colourful and cost-effective, bedding dahlias grow to around kneeheight, have attractive green to maroontinted foliage and do not require staking. The glamorous flowers grow in abundance on stout stems and should be deadheaded regularly to prolong blooming.…

Variegated spider plant Chlorophytum comosum ‘Vittatum’ (also called hen-and-chickens) is a spectacular cultivar of the indigenous C. comosum with colourful, variegated foliage. This rhizomatous evergreen perennial forms a large basal rosette with arching straplike leaves up to 45cm in length. It produces thin cascading stems with white star-like flowers that are soon replaced with perfect little miniature plantlets. In temperate gardens it can be used as a clumping groundcover to add light and interest to dull, shady corners where the many little plantlets formed will soon root where they touch the soil, creating more clusters. Indoors it can be popped on shelves, planted in hanging baskets or used in macrame hangers and grown in bright, indirect light. Keep the soil just moist and do not over-fertilise as this may inhibit…

‘Flower Carpet’ With over 25 international awards, ‘Flower Carpet’ roses are ones to look out for. As the name suggests, these are groundcover roses that ramble over the ground, potentially producing an amazing 2000 flowers from spring to autumn. Back in the 1980’s, Australian nurseryman Anthony Tesselaar launched ‘Flower Carpet’ roses to the world, and our own Keith Kirsten made them famous in South Africa. Once established, the roses are drought-resistant and low maintenance, requiring just garden shears to prune them back if necessary. They are disease resistant as well. Just like making fine wine, developing a new hybrid takes an in-depth knowledge of roses in order to choose the right parents and artificially pollinate a variety with pollen from a different variety. These beauties have stood the test of…

If cauliflower was a stock to trade, some would have made millions in the last few years as the humble cauliflower became one of the most versatile cruciferous vegetables in the kitchen. With an increase in the popularity of flexitarian, vegan, gluten-free, keto and plant-based diets, cauliflower is no longer only baked into a cheesy casserole, but spiced and grilled as ‘steaks’ on a braai, mashed, riced, sauced, powdered, blended and made into pasta or a crispy pizza base. There are not many vegetables that can do all that! However, you can only add cauliflower to so many meals before it becomes a bit tiresome, so preserving it is always an attractive option when you have a glut. Freezing cauliflower is one of the best ways to preserve the vegetable…

Highveld and KwaZulu-Natal Midlands Beetroot, Chinese cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, onions, parsnips, radishes, spinach and Swiss chard, turnips Middleveld (Tshwane and other less frosty areas) Beetroot, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, onions, parsnips, radishes, spinach and Swiss chard, turnips Eastern Cape and Little Karoo Cabbage, Chinese cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, onions, parsnips, radishes, Swiss chard, turnips Western Cape (and Southern Coast) Beetroot, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, parsnips, radishes, spinach and Swiss chard, turnips Northern Cape and Great Karoo Beetroot, Chinese cabbage, carrots, kohlrabi, lettuce, onions, parsnips, radishes, spinach, Swiss chard, turnips Lowveld and KwaZulu-Natal coast Bush beans, runner beans, beetroots, brinjals, cabbage, capsicums (sweet peppers and chillies), carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, onions, parsnips,…

Centaurea gymnocarpa (velvet centaurea or Capraian cornflower) is often mistaken for a dusty miller plant, but is in fact a vulnerable species endemic to Italy and naturally found only on Capraia, a small island in the Tuscan Archipelago. Luckily for us, a cultivar of this plant is grown, and if you need a really tough and drought-tolerant plant for neglected or daunting areas in the garden, this is the one! It has a mounding growth habit with striking silvery-white filigreed leaves. Long white stems are topped with fluffy, rosy thistle-like flowers with lavender-like bracts – good for cutting. This perennial tolerates hard pruning and has a fast rebound with renewed growth. Diseases like rust and powdery mildew can infest it, but only when over-watered It is a good companion plant…

Signs that a houseplant needs water are: Ifthesoiliswet it will have a dark colour and loose consistency. If it has dried out it will have a greyish colour and will have started pulling away from the sides of the pot. Ifitfeelsdryto the touch when you stick a whole finger into the soil, the plant needs watering. Should you carefully stick a chopstick or kebab stick deeper into the soil and it comes out clean, the soil is too dry. Ifyoupickupthe inner pot in which the plant actually grows and it feels light, chances are that it has dried out too much. Notallpottingmediumsare the same. Some growers use a bark-based medium that can dry out faster, whereas others are more partial to a humus-dense mix that retains…

Peanut butter log What you need 1.8m x 32mm wooden dropper 900mm x 16mm wooden dowel 550mm x 16mm wooden dowel 20mm x 200mm x 200mm piece of wood Wood screws (3.5mm x 32mm) Cup hooks 2 nails (40mm in length) Paint or spray-paint 100 grit sandpaper Tools: Cordless drill, 16mm spade bit, screwdriver bit, hammer, rubber mallet, paint brush (unless using spray-paint) Steps Making the feeders Log peanut butter seed feeder Take a natural log and screw a cup hook into one end. Use a 16mm spade bit and drill holes into log. Mix peanut butter and bird seed together and push it into the drilled holes. Hang this log from a cup hook attached to a dowel. Nail feeders The nails attached to the dowels are for fruit…

They originated in mid-20th century when breeders were trying to increase the hardiness of traditional koi. The breeders mixed wild Indonesian longfin river carp with traditional koi fish, and the result was longfin koi, otherwise known as butterfly or dragon koi. Longfin koi can mix well with your normal koi and goldfish. Longfin koi have long, flowing fins that are much larger in proportion to their bodies than those of traditional koi varieties. The body shape of a longfin koi is more slender and elongated, too. The elongated fins can be achieved by stunting the body growth of the fish while encouraging growth of the fins and tails. Longfin koi do not get as big as traditional koi, but they are very calm, peaceful and hardy fish that can live…

Decades ago, just before our final matric exams, we had a vigorous debate in our history class about what a ‘norm’ is. I can’t remember the details, or if a consensus was even reached about the precise meaning of the term. Other terms were used in the discussion, like unwritten rules, laws, morals, taboos, beliefs, attitudes, standards and behaviours, which should apparently be acceptable to the average performance of a significantly large group, culture, grade or class. Maybe our ‘liberal’ teacher allowed this deviation from the usual (another interpretation of a ‘norm’) curriculum due to the suddenly changing and very argumentative behaviour of the class, half of which had embraced the concept of peace, free love, revolution and rock-and-roll, and the other half were highly upset that they were already…

Quick fact file Business name: Ludwig’s Roses Specialising in: Roses Contact details: 012 544 0144 email info@ludwigsroses.co.za www.ludwigsroses.co.za When not among his roses, Mr Ludwig, as he is often called, is happiest talking to people about roses, whether to visitors at the rose farm, talks to garden clubs and shows or at his many demos on how to grow roses simply and easily. Not to mention his columns in magazines and newspapers, his monthly email newsletter, Talking Roses, and the two books he has written. This month Ludwig’s Roses celebrates its 50th anniversary, the happy coincidence of a passion for roses becoming a growing and successful business. Having grown roses from childhood as part of the family business, Ludwig has been determined to show that growing roses is easy, and…

We are in the midst of a gardening paradigm shift. Social media is inundated with self-professed indoor-plant parents and houseplant influencers. People are growing food at rates not seen since the Victory Garden movement of the World Wars. Lawns are out, pollinator gardens are in. The 2021 Garden Media Trend Report put it best: we are in the middle of A Great Reset. At the centre of this Great Reset is a new generation of gardeners – the next generation – whose demographic makeup and gardening philosophy differ vastly from the traditions we know. Who is this next generation? They are the renters with little space to garden, the tech savvy with a desire to get away from screens, the workaholics with no free time, the environmental activists with an…

Lemon is a lovely fresh fragrance, and lemony herbs are particularly appealing, unless you are a mosquito, fly or garden pest like whiteflies and aphids. Lemon-scented herbs like lemon verbena, lemon balm, citronella geranium, lemon grass and indigenous lemon bush (Lippia javanica) all contain strong lemonscented volatile oils (citral or citronellal) that are unpalatable to pests, actively repelling them. Other strong pest-repelling herbs with distinctive aromatic fragrances are lavender, catnip, basil and peppermint. Using herb sprays is a natural way to control the pests, which have been particularly bad this summer. Working with nature and using natural controls is a much healthier option than chemical controls and repellents. For herbs to be effective, however, the fragrance has to be released by crushing or rubbing the leaves. For instance, mosquitoes, flies…

We told you in January that planting bulbs would be a great trend in 2021, so March is a good time to kick off your annual bulbplanting quest with the indigenous wild hyacinths, also called Cape hyacinth, Cape cowslip and, more botanically correct, Lachenalia. Between South Africa and Namibia there are more than 120 natural species (some of which are sold in flower by specialist nurseries), but there are also many desirable hybrids bred by commercial bulb growers that are readily available in bulb form from the end of February. These easy-to-grow bulbs are petit in size but vibrant in appearance with a fiveweek flowering season producing tapering blooms of tubular-bell-shaped, fragrant flower spikes often in bi- or tri-coloured combinations of varied colours, depending on the hybrid or species. Lachenalias…

Although agapanthus don’t mind being a tad overcrowded, they will in time lose their natural vigour and will need to be divided and replanted – an added bonus is that this will also give you a lot more of them. Since the flowering peak of most is over, now is a good time to dig up thick clumps. Do this: To make the job easier, water your agapanthus patch the night before. Use a garden fork to lift up the clumps – you might need a helper with another fork to assist you. Shake the old soil from the roots and gently tease the individual plants apart from each other. Clean up the divided plants, removing old leaves and accumulated debris, and cut across all leaves about 8 – 15cm…