In our spring, the Cape is a showcase of wild
flowers. To see the best, you have to go up the West Coast and this year we
were invited to one of the oldest flower festivals, Darling which was
celebrating its 100th year. It was held at the Darling Golf Club
We had been invited for the
media day on Thursday and could not make it as we were at the Amorim MCC
Challenge Awards, but we did drive up on Friday. Sadly, it was a rather grey
day and when the sun hides itself, so do the daisies which grow everywhere
This is a very refreshing
country festival, people are friendly and helpful, they have not modernised too
radically, there is no blaring music and the stalls actually have things you
want to buy. We loved it.
Food is interspersed with
things for sale and there was a variety of food trucks
There is quite a lot of art for
sale
We went to visit the Ormonde
stand first in the wine tent, where we found Berinda Basson, Ormonde owner
Theo’s wife, organising things
She gave us a taste of Ormonde's Ondine Grenache
and one of those lovely chocolate and strawberry cupcakes which are made with
the Grenache
and then she took us to the flower show in
the Hall. Hanging decorations of wild freesias
The flowers are all picked the
day before and put into small water phials which are buried in the ground to
look natural . Even the reeds have last year's weaver bird nests on them
A beautifully maintained veteran Triumph motorbike in
a field of Arum lilies and fynbos. a 100 year old bike at a show celebrating its centenary
The flowers are so delicate and
beautiful. Many have been hybridised and commercialised by the bulb and other
flower industry, and are sold as bulbs or corms for you to plant in your own
gardens, worldwide. Like Freesias, Ixias, gladiolas, gerberas, ericas and
heath, they all originate from this area
Some guinea fowl in their
natural habitat amongst the flax, heath and the wild rosemary (kapokbos)
Even some rare orchids
which only the experts know how
to find. They are protected, as are all of our wild flowers
You can view individual
specimens, which are replaced as they need to be
The modern world has reached
the festival. Scan with your phone for information
Duckitt’s orchid farm is just outside Darling- this
was their display
Time for lunch. The golf club was
doing a braai and we really fancied some chops and boerewors but, sadly, we
could not buy them with the vouchers which the show’s organisers had been kind
enough to give us
So John went to find a German
stand and had a lovely Bratwurst roll. Lynne had some ribs from a food truck
and Loraine had some chips
You could lose yourself in the
many alleys of stands
The weather was getting
chillier and rain was threatening, so we found a table in the wine tent
and went to have a taste of
Groote Post wines with Wimpie Borman
wonderful wood carvings
Bags and cushions and a German
sausage stand
What a wonderful display of
proteas and all for sale
So many different varieties
These very tall gum trees,
which must be at least a century old, were planted along the roads to give the
ox wagons some shade as they travelled along in the summer. The gums were
imported from Australia; the Cape does not have many tall indigenous trees
We left the show and went to
visit Duckitt’s Orchid farm just outside Darling, which is open to the public
only on the first Saturday of the month from May to November, from 9 to 12 and
always at festival time. The last open house will be on November 4th this year.
It is a wonderful sight. We saw mostly cymbidium orchids but they do have other
species as well. Delicate white and pink?
Or Yellow with red in the
centre
Or a stem of bright pink with
white centres
Purple
They are grown en masse in huge
shade houses
So many different colours and
variations
Lovely for a wedding
Wow!
They make such great
decorations
So delicate
Even green with purple and
white centres
We bought a huge orange orchid
with two stems and one spray of these delicate white orchids to put in a vase. We
will definitely be back next year
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017
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