Monday, September 11, 2023

Floral Clanwilliam

Every year we make a trip up the West Coast to see the Spring flowers which put on such a show
- one of our floral kingdoms greatest sights
We decided to go to the annual Clanwilliam Wild Flower show, which is indoors in a local church
and planned the weekend accordingly
http://clanwilliamwildflowershow.co.za/
Why? Well, the weather this year has been wet, icy and very unpredictable;
Spring has been very late arriving and spring flowers only come out in full sun
Our feeling was that we might see flowers along the way on the N7, but if we didn't, the hall would enchant
Driving to Clanwilliam takes about 3½ hours and the weather was windy with lots of scudding clouds,
so we didn't see much

This is the sensational view from the top of the Piekenierskloof Pass
The Swartland below is normally dry brown land but, this year, is a patchwork of such beautiful different greens
from wheat and yellows from the canola fields

The very traditional Clanwilliam Harvest church, the venue for the exhibition

Spring daisies

We took two good friends with us who are enthusiastic gardeners, like Lynne

It was the second last day of the show, but the hall was still impressive with floral displays from different areas, veld, mountain, semi-desert etc.

The plants taken for the exhibition are all returned to their terroir at the end of the show

There was an amazing display of proteas

and individual flowers with their names and locations; many are rare finds

Knersvlakte is a region of hilly terrain covered with quartz gravel in Namaqualand
in the north-west corner of the Western Cape Province. It has many dry land plants and succulents

Such a variety of flora and bulbs

The Cederberg mountain area, where we had planned to spend the night,
once was a verdant mountainous area where ancient  Clanwilliam cedar trees (Widdringtonia wallichii) grew
Sadly, most of them were chopped down by early settlers to provide wood for building
There is a programme to try to replant them in the wild
One initiative that is interesting is where they have taken seeds and enrobed them in a growing medium
and these are being dropped in the wilderness areas from drones to see if they will grow again
We hope it succeeds for the future generations

Beautiful flowers from bulbous plant and local orchids

Iridiceae, the Iris genus: Moraea Speciosa (bloutulp)

Gladiolus carinatus (Blou afrikaner). These are some of our most beautiful wild flowers

The sun was out when we exited the show,
so we headed off to the local Ramskop Wild Flower Carden near the Clanwilliam Dam,
which has a reasonable entry fee of R30 for pensioners

The spring flowers were all out. 
Kokerboom trees, Aloidendron dichotomum

An enormous Australian Gum tree which was planted for shade
You often see double rows of them as they bordered old wagon roads to give the travellers relief from the harsh sun

Mauve vygies (mesembryanthemum) brighten up the garden with the golden and white daisies 

This ancient Kokerboom is prevented from falling over by a large rock

"This part of the Garden was officially opened by Lady Catherine, Countess of Clanwilliam on 30th August 1991"

A rich mix of the floral kingdom leads down to the recently enlarged Clanwilliam dam

Fruits of the ysterbos, Phylica oleaefolia

Wilde dagga, Leonotis leonurus. Sunbirds love gathering nectar from the flowers

A field of bulbs still waiting to flower, many are Watsonia borbonica

Wild Dimorphotheca sinuata, also indigenous and also now found in gardens world wide

A yellow version of Dimorphotheca sinuata

This area has had serious droughts for years when the dam was dry
and the improvement of making the dam bigger hopefully will help to keep the town alive

Daisies growing in a stream, with some tiny frogs at their base

and a small dam, we could hear the frogs

Wind making lovely patterns on the water

And a pleasure boat doing the same

We saw quite few new houses on the side of the dam

A male malachite sunbird (Nectarinia famosa) in a protea tree

feeding on wild dagga

Carpobrotus edulis, known as Sour Fig (Suurvy) one of our indigenous plants, now grown around the world
Its seed pods are full of a sour, sticky centre and jam is made from them
The leaves are used for many medicinal uses

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