marian's Blog
marian's Blog
Last Post 10 days, 5 hours Ago
May 3, 2008 | 12:13 PM PST
My son and family arrive tomorrow from the UK. We will be gone a week to the Widerness nr Knysna. So looking forward to my time with my granddaughter and the break away what a wonderful combination. I will for many years have them all together in one place.:-) that I know most of you will understand. I will be taking lots of photos and enjoying the family gathering.
Apr 24, 2008 | 3:13 PM PST
I have been back and forward this last week to the doctor and landed up in hospital on a two day stint for tests. I ‘m fine though nothing wrong. Tests! Doctor's... Ug dislike both. No that doesnt sound right just don’t like visiting doctors, and tests well a nescessary evil. My son and dil and my granddaughter Jessica are due to arrive on a short holiday in early may. I am so looking forward to seeing them, Jessica will be a year old in May. I last saw her when she was three months old. When the grandchildren live so far away you miss out on so much, but then again it does make those times you see them more special.
Anyhow its back to growing green things even though we are verging on winter, things haven’t quite stopped growing, but some leaves are turning and falling. We have had our first snap of chilly weather. We never get clearly defined seasons, .Autumn is my favourite season, not because of the colours as I said we don’t get much of that but because I know the south easter will not be back for a good while.
The orchid that I split and repotted into three plants, in the spring. Which turned out to be a huge mistake on my part as I have since discovered that they like to be a bit pot bound. Well two of the three have thrown out flower spikes. I have been feeding them a weak solution of nitrosol once a week since repotting so maybe that’s what did it. The spikes are very weak looking , so I am not sure if they still have to develop or whether they are just weak attempts at flowering until they restablish themselves? I shall soon see!. My sister has had an orchid in the garden for years which I did not know about until a recent conversation with her she does not know the name of it. . It is a miniature one and gets highly scented lilac orchids borne on an erect stem. It grows in a small clump of cane like stems, and is terrestrial. I have not been successful in identifying it yet. I shall have to wait for some flowers I think. The shoots she gave me are doing well.
I have recently been on a plant buying spree. Autumn is the time to pick up great specials here. They are mostly indoor plants, I have not had many indoor plants in recent years as I have never really done very well with them. But I am changing my ways ;-0
To date I have bought a 5ft plus Draceana with three canes, a Anthurium kohara double. Two bamboo orchids which I am very excited about and a zygo cactus which I have always loved. My rex begonias that I rooted from leaf cuttings are doing well and have been sending out new leaves regularly. I gave away one of my tree wisteria seedlings yesterday to a bonsai enthusiast. He was ecstatic as they are hard to find here.It made me feel really good to see his face light up at the prospect of a bonsai tree wisteria. I love sharing plants.
DH has made me a shade house for next summer, it is nearly impossible to grow seedlings in the summer wind, too drying and as of yet I have no shady or partially protected areas. I have managed to locate some yellow gloriosa bulbs and some rothchildiana. Yes I feel I have been lucky with finding a few plants that I really love and have been looking for , for a while now. The Gloriosas haven’t arrived yet. Looking forward to receiving those little babies. Although I can’t plant them till October.….
Mar 17, 2008 | 12:16 PM PST
Well I have found it! my Strongylodon Macrobotrys (Jade Vine) and not one but 800 plants. LOL. Well I am actually only getting two of those 800 available, lovely, exotic plants after a search for them for what I think is about 15 yrs now more or less, I don’t care to count any longer, I’ve found it whoo hoo, that’s all that counts. No I have not had a few glasses of fermented grape juice just heady from my find. I never give up when I want to find a plant I am looking for. I was on the internet the other day looking for something entirely different to plants and found this nursery up in the Limpopo Province. I was so excited when I saw their picture of a Jade vine that I took the tel number and phoned it. Needless to say I did not expect them to have one, let alone 800 plants knee high in height. Well the person on the other end was so nonplussed when I said I am enquiring as to whether or not you have any jade vines. “Yes” she said so low key “we do”. I was speechless for a minute or two or three. (I have a contact in Jhb who was willing to bring any plant down for me providing I could get it to Jhb. Bad news they do not supply to Jhb). I told her not to worry that after 15yrs I could wait a while and of course work out my problem. I left my telephone number and a few days later got this phonecall from the nursery manager to say that his sister who lives in a suburb 20 mins away from us was visiting him this week and is going back with an empty van, and would be only too glad to bring me my plants. I am so happy. We had a bit of a chat over the plant. He had one in his garden till last season I think he said, it started to die back and he discovered it had rotted at the base, it had recently given him *46* blooms. He was so upset he just pulled the whole arbour out. He said it was a very old jade vine. Arrrg ! I would have been so upset. If you haven’t seen the flowers on this plant? Do yourself a favour and look it up on the web. Apparently the colour of this flower is almost unique to the plant kingdom. I hope I am successful in growing this plant, at least I will be able to say I tried. :-)
Feb 1, 2008 | 1:13 AM PST
A friend of mine rang me, and asked me if I would like to go to Kirstenbosch Botannical gardens with her. She had to pick up a book from their bookshop. The south easter was raging a gale in Tableview when we left, but as we rounded devil’s peak there was not a drop of wind to be had. It was a glorious day. We ended up walking through the gardens up to the top bookshop where they also have a small nursery. First stop was the Cycad pit then down through the ‘Dell’ which is the oldest section. While I was taking photos Brenda was sitting on a bench in the shade of a tree, I think she is now in the photographic memories of many French and German tourists, they insisted she not move. Then on through the fragrance garden, and finally the bookshop, it’s a route on the map in the middle of the garden shaped like an octopus. I was a bit disappointed with the nursery as it didn’t have much. I was hoping to be able to buy a yellow Gloriosa. At the bookshop is a restaurant and we stopped for a bite to eat, the sandwich’s were delicious they were made with homemade bread. At the main entrance is the conservatory it has a baobab growing in the middle, a small one. The disa’s and the gloriosa’s were lovely. Although the ones I saw in pictures from SC were better looking, but I love all gloriosas. I have posted some pictures of my visit. I even managed to get a bit of a tan.
Jan 14, 2008 | 11:34 AM PST
My Pond is back and has been going fine since I resealed the holes, roughly two weeks now, but I'm thinking of moving it, as it is very hot where it is. I'm just a bit afraid it will drain again while I'm out, then I will lose all my waterlilies. My Hibiscus are making a come back after the attack of mealy bug. but the lobelia had to be thrown out. My roses are recovering after a bit of blackspot. Phew! not too good on the garden front here at the moment is it.
I found some photos on a disc I had forgotten I had, and thought I would share them.They are under Stud farm album
This is the farm in England where we lived for a time. It was called Stud farm, In one of the Parish newsletters put through my letter box whilst I was living there, was the knowledge that Leo Tolstoy wrote a good portion of War and Peace from this farm. The first day we arrived which was the 1st of April we saw twin lambs being born from the top storey window. It was still very cold and we hesitated in phoning the farmer to inform him that they had been born. However in the end we did, they were very grateful. As the lambs had to be rescued from the cold. After that we were considered as being the *shepherd watch*, and looked out for the ewe’s birthing constantly. Every morning I would look out of the bedroom window from upstairs at first light and the garden was full of baby rabbits. I had a great encounter with a fox outside my front door one evening. It is true what they say, that a fox will freeze when discovered or confronted by man. It seemed an eternity but must have lasted only moments. He then ran off not too worried at all. We saw numerous Pheasants with their bright plumage. We had a partridge nest hidden in one of the beds behind all the shrubbery, under a huge chestnut tree. But soon after discovering them, one day found them all broken with the insides eaten, by the fox we think. We also had the biggest moles I have ever seen. The bumbles bees were *huge* too, with perfect markings in black and yellow just like you see drawn in a child’s book. You don’t get that much in the way of insects in England in comparison to Africa but when you do they are *huge*. We had a couple of hedgehogs living in holes in some flower beds. I never got too many pictures of all the flowers that popped up at various times in the spring and the summer in the garden, there were so many. Daffodils of course, tulips of all varieties, several varieties of poppy, daisies, bluebells. I was also having such a wonderful time, I never thought to stop and take photos of them all. Who ever planted that garden originally, did well as the beds were always full, once one variety died back the others were almost there to take the spot. I hope you enjoy the photo’s as much as I did finding them again.
