Togetherness

Zimbabwean birds at Kirstenbosch. Far away from their warm, African home but enjoying a little watery sunshine. The scultpures are on sale from the Visitors Centre at Kirstenbosch.

Stony

Entrance to Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden for children is free for the school holidays and there are some fantastic children's events taking place. I wonder what this little boy is thinking as he looks at the Dylan Lewis sculpture at the entrance.

Happy bus

The bright and cheerful Kirstenbosch Bus enables school groups to travel to and from the Garden free of charge.

Beyond the garden

Crassula perfoliata var coccinea growing on a retaining wall in the Kirstenbosch Collections Nursery - where most of the gorgeous plants that you see in the garden start out. In the distance is Grahan Duncan's office. Graham is a world authority on bulbs with a super-magic touch for cultivating them.

Bird bath

Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden has just been nominated as one of the top 7 picnic destinations in the world by National Geographic. Wow. But then, I can see why. It is a truly spectacular, yet comfortable and friendly place to come to, with a host of things to do apart from look at flowers. It has an interesting history too. This is Colonel Bird's Bath, a spring of crystal clear water that bubbles up into this bird-shaped pond that was built in 1811 (200 years ago!) by one of the first owners of one of the farms that eventually became Kirstenbosch in 1913. The pool is about one and a half metres from end to end, situated in the magical shady Dell. On a hot day like today - the first really warm summer day we have had this season - it is a lovely place to come and cool down, although swimming is not allowed.

Happy Birthday

A hot summer's day today in Cape Town - and someone had the bright idea to go to Kirstenbosch to have a birthday party in the cool, shady garden. Happy Birthday! In the background is the building housing the temporary display, Untamed, that I have visited once before.
For more aitches (!) go to ABC Wednesday.

Grow an indigenous garden

The Garden Centre in Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, on the slopes of Table Mountain, sells only indigenous, South African plants. Luckily there are hundreds to choose from.
For more gees, see ABC Wednesday.

Green gold

The Kirstenbosch exhibit at the Chelsea Flower Show last week won a gold medal. This is a model of it on display at the Visitor Centre at Kirstenbosch. There very nearly was no entry this year as SANBI seems to be in a bit of a financial muddle, but luckily for us, the Provincial Government of the Western Cape and the SA Gold Coin Exchange stepped in at the last minute and provided valuable sponsorship to enable the team to go to London in search of gold.
David Davidson - one of the co-designers of the exhibit - will be talking about the show at Kirstenbosch at 10h30 on 25 June. Click here for info.

Mobile science

Early yesterday morning the ‘mellow yellow’ science van arrived at Kirstenbosch as part of the Biodiversity Expo. The mobile Sciencecentre van is packed with science demonstration equipment (including a planetarium!) and the kids were having such fun 'playing' with the exhibits and being entertained with science demonstrations on the lawns of this most versatile garden.

Check it out

At the end of a long, hot day Botanical Society volunteers are still working hard at the tills, checking out people's purchases of indigenous plants. The Kirstenbosch Plant Fair is an annual fundraising event organized by the Botanical Society and staffed by volunteers from the society and the staff of Kirstenbosch garden. When it opens on Saturday morning, there is a stampede to get to the rare and scarce indigenous plants on sale.

Concerts in a garden

'Tis the season for Kirstenbosch evening concerts. Get there early with a picnic and claim your space. Magical.
(For some photos of the Goldfish concert last Sunday, click here.)

G is for Garden

Gardens are good for the soul. This is Kirstenbosch, Cape Town's gorgeous green garden on the slopes of Table Mountain. All plants in the garden are indigenous to South Africa. The garden is always filled with children having fun - laughing, tumbling on the grass and most importantly, learning to love nature and the great outdoors.

This is one of the rather grotesque statues by sculptor Dylan Lewis that are on temporary exhibition at the moment.

For more gees see ABC Wednesday.

Picnic on the lawn

Take a picnic to Kirstenbosch and experience one of their concerts. Tonight its Zebra &Giraffe and you have to get there really early to get a good spot.

Falling Stars

Today is a bit gloomy and cloudy, so I thought I would post this sunny photo of the well-loved statue of Kirstenbosch's resident Cape Clawless Otter in the Otter Pond. Scultped by Llewellyn Davies and donated to Kirstenbosch by the Taeuber Family in September 1994, it is inscribed with the words "Our quality of life will depend on the ability of mankind to live in harmony with nature."
January is the time of year for the Falling Stars (a hybrid of Croscosmia) to flower and don't they look spectacular falling over the edge of the pond? In New Zealand they are a weed!

Tortoises have right of way

The Shuttle Car tour of the magnificent gardens of Kirstenbosch starts off on Camphor Avenue which used to be the main road from Cape Town to Hout Bay. It was lined with trees to represent the various outposts of the British Empire by Cecil John Rhodes: cork oaks from Gibraltar, Moreton Bay figs from Australia, camphor trees from Hong Kong, and so on. Legend has is that he wanted Queen Victoria to be proud of it when she eventually came to South Africa and presumably would have driven up the road to have tea with him. Sadly for Cecil it never came to pass and today the honourable guest coming up the road was a little tortoise.
(The ride takes an hour and we had a very convivial and knowledgeable guide called Howard.)

Rocket Pincushion

This morning is wonderfully wet and drizzly. This is perfect weather for many of the indigenous proteas which flower in spring like this Rocket Pincushion growing in Kirstenbosch. (This seems to be the season for fireworks what with Diwali and Guy Fawkes, Halloween and other festivals happening all over the City Daily Photo Blogs!) It is indigenous to the Cederberg Mountains. Each "pin" is a separate flower so this is actually a flower head. But read more about it on PlantZafrica.com.

Africa's Chelsea flowers

Today summer has arrived in earnest! Tuesday is Pensioner's Day at Kirstenbosch, and the crowds had yet to arrive when I popped in early to see the reconstruction of "our" Chelsea Flower Show exhibit in a marquee on the lawn at Kirstenbosch. These are hybrids of the King Protea called "Madiba". For more worlds on My World Tuesday click here.

Kirstenbosch

K is for Kirstenbosch - our most beautiful National Botanical Garden - which is ablaze with spring flowers at the moment. Today is a warm, sunny day here in Cape Town - grab your camera - its a perfect day to visit Kirstenbosch. For more ABC Wednesdays, click here.

Tapestries of rare plants

The Kirstenbosch Botanical Art Biennale 2010 is on at the moment - and well worth a visit. Apart from being completely free to view, there were some interesting new additions to the usual paintings - like these fabulous wall hangings by artists of the Keiskamma Art Project. Kirstenbosch invited a group of artists from the Keiskamma Art Project to the garden a few months ago, showing them the rare and endangered plants from their part of the world growing in Kirstenbosch. The artists were ispired to create some amazing wall-hangings and tapestres that are now on show - like this cycad above.

Tree man

Who said Kirstenbosch was all about flowers? Camouflaged against the trunk of a huge fig tree is a figure - one of several that make up an exhibition called Untamed by sculptor Dylan Lewis. Although there are no labels or explanations on the statues (I think they want you to buy the book!) a google later on revealed that these figures are meant "to show a progression from wilderness, to animal, to fragmented animal forms, to the human/animal interface. Where does animal end and humankind begin?" Some rather schoolboy-ish poetry accompanies the introduction to the exhibition in an arty-rusty-fully recycled building that popped up overnight on one of Kirstenbosch's green lawns. Shocking to some of the Kirstenbosch faithful, but certainly a wonderful way to while away a glorious spring day.
For more worlds, see My World Tuesday.