Osborn's Field and South African Bed

This is a sheltered south west facing area with no frost pockets, and has, therefore, been perfect for trialling borderline hardy plants. Sophora and  Corokia and many others have all survived and flowered very well.

 

The particularly sheltered border, along the wall, offers many different conditions, from full sun to light shade, and dry to wet soil.

This allows a wide range of shrubs, herbaceous and bulbous plants to be trialled, with a number from Chile planted in the damp shade at the southern end of the border. The bed bordering the path now contains part of the national collection of Weigela.

At the top is a fine tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera  whose cup-shaped green flowers with an orange band appear in midsummer followed by spectacular autumn colour. Nearby a fine Chilean Myrtle, Luma apiculata has gorgeous red bark and beautiful white flowers.

  • Gladiolus dalenii South African Bed August 2020

  • South African Bed July 2020

  • Tulip Tree June 2015

  • Zantedeschia pentlandii South African Bed Aug 2020

  • Osborn’s Field May 2022

The South African Bed in Osborn’s Field

The complex climate, geology and landscape of Southern Africa (including the Kingdom of Lesotho) has produced about 20,000 species of flowering plants, of which 80% are found no where else. The distribution of these has been divided by botanists into nine biomes, defined by the varying effect of rainfall (amount and season), altitude and soil type.  In the attempt to display some of this amazing flora, the nine biomes have been simplified into three regions: the Drakensberg, The East and the West

Most of Southern Africa consists of a vast high plateau, which slopes down from east to west.  It is edged by an escarpment which at its highest (11,000 ft) forms the high altitude Drakensberg mountains with year round precipitation falling as snow in winter.

There are more mountain ranges (up to 6,000 ft) in the south and west.

The East has the highest rainfall which occurs mainly in the summer. The amount of rain decreases substantially from east to west.

In the south west the rainfall is predominantly in the winter, with hot dry summers, giving this area a ‘Mediterranean’ climate.

Most of the plants we grow in Europe originate in the Eastern summer rainfall area. Some come from winter rainfall area, particularly from stream sides and other moist places.  The higher the origin in either area, the hardier the plant; those from the Drakensberg being truly hardy, experiencing temperature down to  –15C.

The bed was created during the autumn and winter of 2018-9, and planted out during the spring and summer of 2019.  The plants came from various sources, but were mostly grown from seeds obtained from Silverhills Seeds in Cape Town.  Virtually all are species, with only a very few garden bred cultivars.