Professor Sandy Primrose visited us last week, Wed June 12th, to give his “A Floral Cornucopia” talk. The focus of the talk was on plants of the southern cape of Africa, covering a wealth of information from the early plant hunters and their finds, through to the gardens you can visit today around Cape Town in South Africa. Here are a few links for you, if you want to find out more about the plant hunters and gardens. Also, included are some links to places to visit closer to home, where you can see some examples of plants from the southern cape.
The Plant Hunters
Sandy talked about a couple of plant hunters who travelled to South Africa in the late 1700’s and into the 1800’s including Francis Masson and William John Burchell.
Francis Masson, born in 1741, worked at Kew in the very early days and then travelled with some of the great explorers to South Africa hunting for plants. Masson brought back lots of specimens, introducing 86 species of Cape Heaths, 50 species of pelargoniums and Protea, as well as the Strelitzia, the Bird of Paradise Flower, one of the most flamboyant of South African exotics. There’s more info on Francis Masson on the Kew website & on the Scottish Plant Hunters Garden website.
William John Burchell travelled to South Africa in 1811, returning to the UK in 1815, apparently with over 50,000 specimens! When he died he left his specimens to Kew Gardens. More info on William Burchell can be found on the web including the Kew Gardens website and Wikipedia.
If you want to find out more about Kew and their plant hunters a good place to start is the Who’s Who page on the Kew website.
Gardens in Cape Town, South Africa
If you’re going to Cape Town in South Africa, there are a couple of gardens worth visiting. Usually, the best time to visit the gardens is in October, which is spring down there.
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is acclaimed as one of the great botanic gardens of the world, with a fabulous setting against the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. One not to miss!
Also worth a visit is The Company’s Garden, located in central Cape Town. The Company’s Garden was started in 1652 by the Dutch East India Company. Lots of information on the gardens website.
Closer to home…..
Unfortunately, not all of us are going to get to South Africa, but there are places closer to home where you’ll be able to see some of the native South African plants.
Kew Gardens is your best bet – originally a “Cape House” was built to house the plants from South Africa, but I think you’ll now find some of the South African plants in the Palm House.
If you visit the Scilly Isles, make sure you go to the Abbey Gardens on Tresco. This is a sub-tropical garden, with various species from South Africa including the King Protea and Strelitzia. I went there a few years back & was very impressed!
