The biggest succulent I have ever seen!

I learned something new. The Baobab is not a tree in the usual sense; it is a succulent. Or anyway it is a tree that behaves like a giant succulent in that up to 80% of the trunk is water. Because of this, the San nomads relied on the baobab as a valuable source of water when the rains failed and the rivers dried. A single tree can hold up to 4,500 litres (1,189 gallons). The bark and flesh are soft, fibrous and fire-resistant too.

I learned this at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens which also refers to the baobab in the middle of its conservatory as an "upside-down tree." Legend has it that the tree was lording itself over the lesser plants and so offended God that He uprooted it and planted it again upside down to stop its boasting. Ouch! Let that be a lesson to you. The baobab remains in leaf for only a very short time each year and if you look at its branches bare of leaves, its easy to see how the legend grew. And grew and grew and grew ... That is the biggest succulent I have ever seen!

South Africa Succs

"The objectives of the Succulent Society of South Africa is to promote knowledge, the cultivation and conservation of succulents."

a trough garden

a terrarium

Back in New Jersey, I cultivated many cement trough gardens and mason jar terrariums with succulents. I loved them. They are easy to grow, demand absolutely nothing from you as a person, a gardener, a human being. You do not even have to water them (unless there is a serious rain shortage and even then probably not.) Leave them out in the winter in North America and they come back in the spring happy to see you again. They are everywhere in Joburg and all over Valley Lodge so I decided to indulge myself with some succulent gardening at the source of many of these native plants.

a tree stump table and chairs in the center of my succulent garden in NJ

a gnome in my succulent garden

According to the Succulent Society website, "Succulents may be described as plants which are adapted to store water in their leaves, branches or stem bases in order to be able to survive long periods without water. These succulent storage organs led to their descriptive name in Afrikaans: vetplant (fat plant). As can be expected, most succulents are found in arid parts of the world, although some are also adapted to grow in areas with a high rainfall.

Southern Africa is one of the most succulent rich areas in the world. Of the world's approximately 10,000 succulent species, nearly half originate from Southern Africa. World-wide there is a tremendous active interest in the succulents of the region.

There are a number of reasons for the interest succulents enjoy among plant and nature lovers, gardeners and botanists. The ability to survive in the most hostile environment, the fascinating growth forms and spectacular flowers which occur amongst these plants, the fact that the plants can be transplanted fairly easily and can in the most instances grow happily for weeks and even months almost care free, all lead to the special interest succulents enjoy.



From the viewpoint of conservation there is also enough reason to devote special attention to succulents. A delicate balance exists in the habitat of most of these plants. A slight disturbance of this balance may seriously endanger their survival. Many succulents are also endangered because they are much sought after collectors' items, which leads to the illegal removal of plants from the veld.

The South African Aloe and Succulent Society was founded in 1963 when a few succulent enthusiasts realised that Southern Africa's succulent richness and the wide interest in the plants necessitated a society having as its aims the conservation of these plants and the making available of both information on succulents and the plants themselves. In 1988 the name was shortened to the Succulent Society of South Africa."

echeveria planted @ Valley Lodge

So I sent my membership dues off to the Succulent Society of South Africa. Now I succ in South Africa too!

Monthly Notes for Highveld Gardeners

cliveas!

One of the things that sealed the deal for my choosing Valley Lodge as our Home Sweet South African Home was the established garden on the property. Helen, the owner of the property, is a gardener and she and Clement, the gardener who came with the garden, built the garden themselves from scratch. Clement and I are going to be very good friends. I intend to stick to him like glue as he prunes and trims, feeds and waters, digs and tops off the garden.

brugmansia!

I am a gardener myself having learned much of it while I was a member of a Garden Club of America club in New Jersey for 10 years. I also took classes at the New York Botanical Garden, Duke Gardens, the New York Horticultural Society, Reeves Reed Arboretum - where I worked for a while as an event planner -  along with many other botanical gardens and horticultural societies and clubs.

I had gardens of my own growing flowers, trees, water plants, herbs, and vegetables on my little acre in Fanwood and my summer house at the Jersey shore with the help of wardian cases, a heated greenhouse, an English conservatory, an iron compost bin, and a cold frame. I was not a very good gardener, but I tried really, really hard!!!

As it turns out I grew many native South African plants in NJ. (I had a greenhouse and a conservatory, remember?) I realized this as I was finding good homes for my plants before I left. I researched care instructions on some of the plants for the adoptive parents to refer to after I was gone. Blood lilies, veltheimia bracteata, jade plants, some geraniums and aloes, succulents, clivias ... all native to South Africa. So I was delighted when I found them  ... and one of my favorite non-natives, brugmansia  ... all blooming in my garden at Valley Lodge after I arrived. And as an added bonus, they were all planted in the ground and not in containers as they were in NJ where I would have to haul them in and out of shelter as the seasons changed! Awesome!

My neighbor Daphne recommended I go visit the Montrose Nursery nearby to survey the plants available and establish a friendly rapport. Good advice! It was there I found a copy of Monthly Notes for Highveld Gardeners, the full color almanac recently published by the Johannesburg Garden Club. It will be my gardening bible over the next year!

the right place for a lime tree!

The first thing I added to our garden is a lime tree. There was one on the complex property but it was planted in the wrong place. Behind a wall under very large trees in full shade. It hardly got any sun. It had a few limes on it which was pretty amazing really when you considered its location. It so badly wanted to fruit!

I had the perfect spot for it in my garden in front of a brick wall which would provide some nice radiant heat in practically full sun all day. I bought some compost and fertilizer from the nursery and Clement and Bob, one of the resident landscapers for the complex, dug a hole in front of the wall and transplanted it for me.
In the ground!

Now I grew citrus plants in NJ, mandarin orange, meyer lemon, key lime and blood orange, but they were in pots and spent most of the year in the greenhouse. They only came out after the threat of frost subsided in May and before the frost threatened again in September. Now I would try my hand on citrus. In the ground! What a concept.  (There is already a resident lemon tree that is in full fruit!)

lemons!

lime!

Helen is very glad that she has someone living at Valley Lodge who cares about the garden and I am happy to have a garden to care for - and Clement! I cannot wait until the Johannesburg Garden Club's annual plant sale in September to find more South African plants to add to it. I want to be a Highveld gardener!