Going crazy for succulents!

This past summer I went totally crazy and purchased dozens of new succulents! My collection primarily consisted of Echeverias, some cacti and a few aloes. Now I have some new babies to look after and it's taking up a lot of my time, experimenting with sun and shade, how much water and learning all the names, where they grow naturally and generally just pampering and loving them!

Three Mammilleria cacti in small pots - to find exactly which specie each one is, is a nightmare!

 Cotyledon orbiculata

 Crassula arborescens ssp. undulatifolia - indigenous to South Africa

Crassula perfoliata ssp. falcata

Since I bought this Crassula in January 2015, it his just recently started producing a flower (2nd March 2015)! I believe this can take a while before it fully opens...

Flower as at 16th March 2015 - now I'm just waiting for the full blossoms!

A dish garden with mainly some Echeverias

Sedum rubrotinctum

Echeveria harmsii

Echeveria harmsii just starting to flower

This Cotyledon (Paddle plant) - Plakkie in Afrikaans - was a single leaf I "stole" from a pavement garden in Modderfontein and look at it now!

At the end of January, I participated in an on-line succulent auction on FaceBook and I was the highest bidder! I received my 25 beautiful little plants by courier in the first week of February and since then I've been keeping a close eye on each and every one, and last week I was rewarded with my first flowers from the Pleiospilos compactus!

Now the question is just whether I'm going to bring them inside for winterizing... At the moment most of them are under an overhanging tree on a stand on my patio where they get early morning sun and some late afternoon sun, so they might be protected from the very bad frost we sometimes get here. But I will be checking on them EVERY day to watch for any cold damage.

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An Organic Insecticide

I came upon this organic insecticide on Witkoppen Wildflower Nursery's website -
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Here is a recipe for an organic insecticide that we have used with some success in the nursery to control Amaryllis as well psyllids (that cause those unsightly ‘bubbles’ in the leaves of many plants, notably citrus, Erythrina (Corral Trees) and Hypoestis (ribonbush).
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We got this recipe from Strilli Oppenheimer and Dawid Klopper, who have used the recipe in the Gardens at Brenthurst.
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Please note that this is an insecticide and is non-selective, so will kill the good guys along with the baddies.
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We try to spray our Clivias, Crinums and Nerines every 7 to 10 days. Use with care.

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Recipe:
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    4 Large onions
    1 Head of garlic cloves
    1 Handful of HOT chillies
    1 Tablespoon of dish-washing liquid
    1 Tablespoon of cooking oil

    Finely chop up the onions, garlic and chillies

    Add to 3 litres of boiling water, allow to stand overnight

    Strain and add the dish-washing liquid and cooking oil

    Mix 150 ml of fresh water to each 250 ml of the tea.
    Spray.

We substitute a tablespoon of Biogrow’s Bioneem or Pyrol for the tablespoon of cooking oil.
Just one more warning: do not wipe your eyes or touch any sensitive body parts, before washing your hands very well, during or after, cutting up the chillies. It may be very painful if you do!

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Harvest from the Earth

COMPOST -Brown Gold

Healthy plants need healthy soil and well-made compost is at the top of the list of soil improvers. It supplies a mix of nutrients as well as coarse organic material that helps aerate the soil.

Earthworm manure, or vermicompost, is 10 times more nutritious than commercially bought compost. It is a natural fertiliser and soil conditioner. Plants that receive vermicompost are healthier, disease resistant and drought tolerant.

Vegetables are more productive and full of flavour. The earthworm species (Eisenia fetida), which produce vermicompost, feed on decomposing organic matter and produce waste (called castings) that contains five times more nitrogen than topsoil, as well as high amounts of potassium and phosphate.

Another by-product is earthworm tea. It is a combination of earthworm urine and the liquid leached from the decomposing material. It can be diluted with water (1:50) and used as a foliar feed, as a rooting agent or as a pre-soak for seeds. The only way to harvest this waste, is to keep a wormery. This is simply a container in which the earthworms are kept, in conditions that are dark, warm and moist. They are fed whenever necessary, on fruit and vegetable scraps, or soft garden waste. It is as simple as that. The cost of a ready-made domestic system can be from R550.00 (approx. $55.00) to several thousand rand, but it includes the worms and once it is in place, can last virtually forever.

GREEN TEA

Green tea is made from soft, dark green leaves such as comfrey, yarrow and borage leaves. Green tea is best for leafy vegetables. the dilution rate is generally 1 part tea to 7 parts water.

MANURE TEA

Manure tea is made from any kind of manure. some manure is strong than others. For instance, only two handfuls of chicken manure are needed compared to three to five handfuls of cow or horse manure.

Good sources are stables, dairies, as well as nurseries that sell manure in bags.

The final tea should be the colour of weak tea. Manure tea is a good root drench for vegetables, flowers and containers.

If using seedlings, the dilution rate should be 1:12, but for larger plants can be 1:7 or 1:10.

FINDING SPACE

The ideal site is a level piece of ground with the top and sides open to the air to aid decomposition. Ready-made compost bins and drums are also available from garden centres and hardware stores.

THE RECIPE

The basic method is to alternate wet, green material (nitrogen rich) with dried (carbon rich) material, interspersed with activating materials like manure, already made compost or soil.

INGREDIENTS

• Dried leaves

• Grass cuttings

• Garden waste, like shrub prunings, spent annuals, weeds (without seeds or flowers)
• Shredded newspaper

• Kitchen waste: vegetable and fruit peelings (except potato peels and citrus), eggshells, tea bags, coffee grounds.

• Ash from a wood fire

• Manure

• Pine needles, hay, peanut shells

WHAT NOT TO USE:

Meat and fish left-overs, cat litter, dog droppings, coal ash, magazines, synthetic fibres, glass, tin or plastic.

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An April garden

My garden in April...

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Growing the Highveld Cabbage Tree (Kiepersol) from seed

We're deep into Autumn here in South Africa and my Kiepersol is already starting to lose its leaves. Time to stop watering so much, but we've had quite a bit of rain over the last week, so hope it dries out before the real cold weather hits.

This evergreen tree NOT so evergreen here in Tarlton!) makes a beautiful focal point in a garden as it has an unusual shape, interesting gnarled bark and stunning, large, gray-green leaves. It is a short, thick-set tree, rarely exceeding 5 meters in height, therefore making a perfect garden specimen. Even though it is an evergreen, we live in a heavy frost area and my tree loses its leaves in winter, but has always bounced right back every spring. The plant is native to southern Africa : Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa (Cape Provinces, Northern Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal) and Swaziland, where it grows till 2.000m of altitude in the savannah and the mountain slopes, usually in the rocks fissures.

New growth in spring

Cultivation
The Highveld cabbage tree (Cussonia paniculata) is cultivated from seed, preferably fresh. One can grow Cussonia paniculata from a cutting, but this is not advisable because it does not make the proper, fleshy, underground rootstock that it forms when grown from seed.

The seeds should be planted in a well-drained mix of river sand and compost (70:30). Germination is erratic - the best results have been obtained with seeds that have been "passed" through birds (Look for the seeds underneath the tree....). First germination occurs after about 2 weeks.

The C. paniculata is an ideal pot plant (plant it in a big pot in a well drained mix), or can be planted as a single specimen or in a cluster - the effect is always striking. Growth rate is about 70cm per year, depending on the climate. The tree is drought hardy and is able to withstand heavy frost after 2 years.

Sow seed as soon as possible as it loses much of its viability within 3 months. However, seed sown in summer months will germinate faster (in about 4 weeks) than seed sown in winter (7 weeks to germination).

Put a mix of rich soil and compost into your seedling trays and place the seeds into them. Cover the seeds to a depth of 5mm with the soil and mulch. Keep moist during germination.

When the seedlings get to a “2-leaf” stage (about 4 months), plant them out into larger black nursery bags.

Make sure seed trays are at least 15 cm in depth to allow the small tubers to form. Do not allow seed to become waterlogged or dry out. Keep seed and seedlings in a semi-shaded area or, if you are planting the seeds now, during winter, keep them indoors in a sunny place, but not sun shining through glass as this can burn the plants.


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Transplanting is easy when small. Bigger trees require care with the hug root system that tends to rot upon transplanting if an injury occurs in digging it out.

When ready to plant the sapling into the ground, position a 50 mm size x 1m length of plastic piping vertically near to the sapling, leaving +- 5 cm above ground level. When watering around the sapling, also pour water into this pipe, as it will encourage the roots to grow downwards looking for the moisture below. Keep the ground around the sapling well mulched with dry leaves etc to assist with water retention above ground.

Well drained soil, some water and lots of sun.

Maybe you could also try your hand at making a Bonsai with one of the seeds - they do well in Bonsai-form. Due to the stem, which can easily assume contorted forms, and the succulent roots, it is an appreciated subject for the collectors of bonsai.

Cussonia paniculata Bonsai -

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