I visited Tokara Wine Estate about five years ago and was privileged to see the beginnings of a particularly unique part of the garden – the Adamastor Moss Garden created by international Japanese garden specialist Gert van Tonder. You can read the story of how it came about here.
Photographs courtesy of the Tokara website
Moss may be one of the most overlooked (and usually accidental) elements of a garden, but is a truly remarkable plant. Dating back more than 450 million years, it is one of the oldest land plants on Earth, and has adapted to survive in a vast range of extreme conditions.
I was astonished to learn that of the approximately 750 species in South Africa, 500 are found in the Klein Karoo! Moss survives heat best when desiccated. Gert says his favourite party trick is to spray mist onto a dry patch of moss to amaze guests with how quickly it turns green again.
As one of the first colonisers of sites disturbed by deforestation or fire, moss helps new plants grow by stabilising the soil surface and retaining water. It also has a remarkable ability to buffer temperatures, and is an incredibly efficient natural carbon sink, absorbing up to four times more CO₂ than trees. Who knew!
There is a host of fascination information about this resilient little plant on the internet. I can recommend the Kew Gardens website if you would like to dig deeper.
IN THE NURSERY
Click here to view all the plants in this newsletter on one website page.
Indigenous plants
The summer deciduous approximately 60cm high Veltheimia bracteata – citron is a lovely indigenous bulb with glossy fleshy leaves and dense racemes of tubular yellow flowers from winter to spring. Plant in sun or semi-shade. We have plants in 20cm pots.
The hardy evergreen Anisodontae hybrid (double pink African mallow) is a robust shrub with round maple-like leaves and dark pink double flowers that attract bees and butterflies all season long. It reaches an average height of 1.8m, and wants sun and dry, sandy soil.
Indigofera micrantha is a gorgeous approximately 1.5cm high shrub indigenous to Transkei and KwaZulu-Natal. With its grey bark, broadly obovate leaflets with rounded tips, and white pealike flowers from summer to autumn it makes a good container plant. It needs shade to deep shade.
The lovely Star of Bethlehem, Ornithogalum juncifolia, is such an underrated plant! An evergreen approximately 20cm high bulb with spikey grasslike foliage and white starlike flowers all summer, it multiplies well. Plant in sun or semi-shade but make sure the soil is moist.
Exotic plants
A bushy approximately 90cm high medicinal shrub with woody stems and frilly yellow flowers tucked between the narrow dark green leaves in summer, Heimia salicifolia (or Elixir of the Sun, if you will) is one of my favourite plants in the garden. This hardy, evergreen medicinal plant is happy in sun or semi-shade.
The purple firespike, Odontonema callistachyum, is an upright semi-woody shrub with shiny lush green leaves and panicles of fuchsia pink tubular flowers from summer to spring. Bees and butterflies love it. Evergreen, very hardy, and reaching an average height of 1.8m, it likes sun to semi-shade.
Salvia gesneriiflora is a multi-stemmed approximately 2.5m high shrub with aromatic heart-shaped leaves and tubular orange red flowers that attract birds to the garden from winter to spring. It is evergreen and hardy, and wants sun or semi-shade.
The deciduous Tricyrtis - Gilt Edge is a shorter form of the rhizomatous toad lily with purple-spotted white orchid like flowers from summer to autumn. Its white-edged leaves are beautiful in deeply shaded areas. Growing on average 50cm high, it multiplies well in acid soil.
SNIPPETS
Life is returning to normal after a disrupted four or five weeks, what with my long visit to the UK. A fuller newsletter at the end of July will include an update on developments in the garden. At least the bulbs should be showing signs of life by then after what has been a very chilly winter in Gauteng!
FUN FACT
The Sphagnum moss we use to line hanging plant baskets serves as winter shelter for spotted turtles in Ontario, Canada where temperatures can drop as low as -35oC.
Happy gardening!
Leoné
082 482 0257