A friend called Stella

Another week and another posting from Will who finds thats its not all sunshine in the southern hemisphere and finally gets acquainted with 'Stella'.
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Hope all is well and the sky isn't too grey and cloudy and that it is sunny. The Wollemi pine from Tregothnan is finally going to be planted at the Arden public gardens near Kirstenbosch. This contains a collection of Gondwanan trees so the Wollemi will be right at home.

Monday, I again carried on with Adam Harrower. I finally finished cleaning the outside flower beds of his greenhouse and weeded inside. I also potted a variegated form of a plant that hasn't been sold as variegated before. Adam found it in a carpark and maybe it will be used commercialy one day.

Tuesday, I helped Adam sort out some of the plants he has been growing, mostly variegated types which he is trying to stabilise but also some more Angolan plants.

Wednesday, spent the day propagating with one of the propagators called Stella. She can be a little bit intimidating but we learnt and got a lot done. We were mainly propagating plants from the Proteaceae family.

Thursday, it was pretty much the same as Wednesday apart from it rained! The rain was actually quite a relief as it cooled everything down, but trying to get the cuttings made me pretty soaked.

Friday, the students and I had the uneasy task of mulching the stock beds. The stock beds are on a quite steep hill and the compost was at the bottom, luckily it wasn't too hot but it was still very tiring. Then we did our 3rd ID test on some plants from lots of families, and finally we did the next weeks ID walk which is mainly trees from the Fabaceae family but also Polygalas which are confusingly similar too Acacias. This weekend I will get some sleep and hopefully visit the beach at a place called Simons Town near Cape Point.


Regards Will Pelton

(Angolan) Guns and Roses

We've had another email from Will in South Africa - we think he's keeping us so well informed we're letting him post in future, direct to the blog....
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I hope the snow and bad weather has finally cleared up and spring is on the way. Everything here is very good if a little hot per usual.

Monday, I finally met and started work with Adam Harrower, he had recently been on a trip to Angola which is botanically almost unknown. I helped him out with sorting things out and visited the Herbarium. I then helped him with his Greenhouse as it has been left for quite awhile and needed a spring cleaning.

Tuesday, I was with Adam again and he showed me the pictures from his trip which were extraordinary, lots of war wreckage mixed with beautiful wildlife. I then carried on cleaning his Greenhouse and collecting some seeds.

On Wednesday, I worked with the students propagating, Enock one of the propagators walked us around so we could take cuttings of plants like Mimetes Fimbriifolius, Leucospermum Cordifolium, Leucospermum Reflexum and lots of the Proteaceae family. We then propagated them and did some potting up.

On Thursday, we did the same thing but with a different man named Johan and we did more semi-wood shrubs like Orphium Serratus and Hermizygia Canescens. We then took cuttings, propagated them & placed them in the misting room.

Finally on Friday, I helped my house mate Karen who is a scholar from University Redo with the kiosk, the kiosk being a collection of plants which are flowering at the moment. It was hot work but looked pretty good afterwards. We then did the second ID test on Ericas and did the walk around the garden for the next test.

Best wishes

Will

Winter in the Garden

From Cornish Snow to South African Sunshine

After a week when the estate experienced the heaviest snowfall in twenty years and staff struggled to get to work, we had an email from Will Pelton one of our horticulture students who is on a gap year and currently working in South Africa for 6 months:

I hope the snow hasn't hindered you too badly this week, today in Cape Town the temperature was 35c! so I am not particularly missing the uk.

Monday, I started work at the seed bank at Kirstenbosch which collects native plant seeds, cleans them and then half are sent to a seed bank in Pretoria and Half to the Kew millenium seed bank in Wakehurst. So I cleaned some rare Leucodendron seeds and hopefully they will end up back in the UK in Wakehurst.

Tuesday, Some of the seed bank workers, myself and a Brazilian volunteer went on a expedition to Cape Point where the Atlantic and Indian ocean meet. It offered fanatastic views and we found what we think was a Ruschia promontorii which is endangered. Hopefully these seeds are viable and will be cleaned and sent to England.

Wednesday, the students and I started propagation using Plectranthus plants. It was very careful work and time consuming but we propagated a large amount.

Thursday, we carried on propagation doing other plants from the garden particularly semi-wood plants like shrubs. This again was difficult due to the irregular shapes but I think Trevor the manager of it was pleased.

Friday, me and the students weeded and watered the stock beds again until midday under a scorching sun of about 35oc. We then proceeded after lunch to do the plant ID test which I was a little unsure about but hopefully the results aren't too bad. The rest of the afternoon was spent finding out the Ericas we needed to study for the next test.

This weekend I am finally going to central Cape Town to see the waterfront and do a bit of sightseeing. I hope the weather gets better and the garden doesn't suffer too badly.

Best Wishes

Will