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Flowering through May-June

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By Anno Torr

Late autumn and early winter offer a cornucopia of situational and regional pageants for South African gardens.

Their value is many-fold: providing wildlife food in the form of nectar and pollen, and adding bright, cheerful colour to a drying landscape in summer-rainfall areas. Western Cape gardeners look forward to the main rainfall season – hopefully, these are abundant! Down there, many of the sugarbushes carry their world-famous blooms, along with a few aloes and other succulents, as well as popular fynbos shrubs – Coleonema, Phylica – and a few restios. Many fynbos specialists are waiting out this uncertain rainfall period, readying themselves to burst forth over the next month or so. For those gardeners in the driest regions of the country like the Succulent Karoo (winter rainfall areas), there are a few in flower through May and June.

 

It is also a time when the climatic differences become most noticeable and so we’ve arranged according to regions and frost levels. But take note too of temperature extremes, and the sun and shade areas within your garden; these microclimates have a significant impact on a plant’s survival.

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