Gardeners’ circle report-back on March visit to the Harold Porter gardens

There were 35 of us and we were again joined by Harold Porter’s horticulturalist, Karen Wall. The effects of the January fire are very stark.  Thousands of hectares were destroyed up in the Biosphere, and much in the gardens, including the irrigation and garden beds near the entrance. To neaten the beds for the public, the Gardens staff cut back and cleaned them, which, in hindsight, was not the ideal thing to do because Fynbos does not like to be disturbed. Each species has its own regrowth pattern, some re-sprouting and some reseeding, so besides watering, one definite lesson learnt…
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Fynbos Gardening

How to create an attractive firewise garden - By Jenny Berrisford This article, written by Jenny Berrisford, originally appeared in the January 2014 Kogelberg Branch Newsletter.  It is, without a doubt still incredibly relevant today.  The recent very wet winter has resulted in either very lush new growth or dead plants which have been “drowned”  by the high water table. First and foremost you need to remove all dead vegetation, and then prune back any tall growth near the house. This will certainly leave you with a huge pile of potentially hazardous material should there be…
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NEW ZEALAND CHRISTMAS TREE CAMPAIGN

- Merrilee Berrisford The New Zealand Christmas trees are now in bud. For the festive season Betty’s Bay’s public enemy number one will be cheerfully bright red and green and earn the title of Christmas Tree of the southern hemisphere. BUT what about all the seeds waiting to be blown off by the southeaster into our fertile wetlands? Already there are packed stands of NZXT’s in wet areas, especially in Sunny Seas and above the rocks beyond Jock’s Bay in the direction of Kleinmond. We have to stop and think if we want parts of…
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ALL ABOUT WITCHES BROOM

- Tim Attwell Thank you to Henriette Botha for an interesting article about Witches Broom in a thirty-one-year-old issue of Farmers’ Weekly, 3 January 1985 to be precise. So what is Witches Broom? Nothing to do with Halloween, you’ll be happy to know. Regular botanical ramblers in the fynbos often see what appears to be a dense, brush-like appendage on protea bushes, exactly where a flower should be. For all the world the brush-like appendage looks like a parasite, only it’s not a parasite, it’s very much part of the affected protea, the product of…
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HAARWEGSKLOOF

-Merrilee BerrisfordThe visit to Agulhas National Park came to an end, ten of the group of seventeen now met at Cameron McMaster’s house for a visit with him to the Napier Renosterveld Reserve. And then there were five, five keen types who had the time to go on to Haarwegskloof for two more nights. But first, Cameron had yet another delight - a visit to Fairfield to see that great treasure, Moraea elegans, in its two colour forms, yellow with either green or orange growing only on that slope and one across the road. Another…
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ILLUSTRATED DICTIONARY OF SOUTHERN AFRICA PLANT NAMES

An update on this unique book by Hugh Clark and Michael Charters and edited by Eugene Moll: Following some three months of editing and sourcing as wide a range of excellent plant photographs as possible, we are at the stage where the completed manuscript is ready to be handed over to Struik Nature. They will do the final editing and compilation (the Dictionary will be ~450 pages, slightly less than A4 in size). We are hopeful that the final product will be ready for distribution by the end of October.
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SPRING EXPEDITION TO SEE RENOSTERVELD AND AGULHAS PLAIN LIMESTONE VEGETATION

Merrilee Berrisford Barbara Jenman, Andrea Benn and Merrilee and Peter Berrisford recently returned from a successful recce in preparation for the planned trip to the area beyond Bredasdorp, to wander through Renosterveld at the Haarwegskloof Renosterveld Reserve and also the limestone vegetation of the Agulhas Plain. The recce crew had good conversations with Emmarentia de Kock, the People and Conservation Officer at Agulhas National Park, and Jannie Groenewald of the Haarwegskloof Renosterveld Reserve. The group enjoyed a day out with Emmarentia in the limestone fynbos and the renosterveld of the National Park. Haarwegskloof near Napier…
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SPRING EXPEDITION TO SEE RENOSTERVELD AND AGULHAS PLAIN LIMESTONE VEGETATION

Merrilee Berrisford It is two and a half years since the Kogelberg Branch expedition to Gifberg; high time for another trip. Your committee has started to plan a three or four-night visit to the area beyond Bredasdorp, specifically to wander (hopefully with a guide) through Renosterveld at the Haarwegskloof Renosterveld Reserve and also the limestone vegetation of the Agulhas Plain. Haarwegskloof near Napier and just north of De Hoop, comprises “the largest contiguous stretch of remnant lowland Renosterveld remaining on earth” and was bought by WWF-SA in 2013. The Overberg Lowlands Conservation Trust has its…
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A POSTER COMPILED BY MY FATHER, THE LATE PROF. ALLAN F P J HEYDORN, FOR AN EXHIBITION BY THE BETTY’S BAY WILDFLOWER SOCIETY IN ± 1970

Alan Heydorn (This text was prepared by Allan Heydorn at the suggestion of the Kogelberg Branch of the Botanical Society of SA, February 2016) The comments below are written from memory and the date ± 1970 might not be absolutely accurate. What is correct is that my father, who was an electrical engineer by profession, was a great nature lover with a very special interest in plants and their distribution in relation to habitat type. Where did this interest originate? In the early years of his professional life, my father worked for the electrical engineering…
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