Johannesburg - Regarded as the Olympics of the flower world, this year’s Chelsea Flower Show (May 21-25) in London will be celebrating its centenary show – and offer an international platform for showcasing new plant hybrids to the world.
South Africans should be especially excited this year: we will build an exhibit to celebrate the centenary of Cape Town’s Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, and a South African species has been shortlisted for the annual Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) 2013 Chelsea Flower Show Plant of the Year.
The award-winning indigenous diascia has been hybridised into a glorious pink flower, which is known by a Japanese breeder as Sundiascia Rose Pink and by a British breeder as Diascia Aurora Dark Pink. Both plants are among 20 prejudged finalists which will compete to be the RHS Chelsea Flower Show Plant of the Year at this year’s competition. Judges will look for a plant that exhibits “innovation, excellence and public appeal”. The winner will be announced on May 21.
Over twenty breeders will be showcasing new hybrids at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show including the South African ice plant, Delosperma ‘Fire Spinner’, prairie blanket flower, Gaillardia ‘Fanfare Blaze’, a new catmint Nepeta ‘Summer Magic’, as well as a host of bearded irises (‘Saphir Jaune’, ‘ Villa Erba’), miltonia orchids and Heuchera ‘Peppermint’.
Kirstenbosch centenary
The 2013 South African exhibit to the Chelsea Flower Show celebrates 100 years of Kirstenbosch as a world-famous national botanical garden. South Africa has exhibited at the Chelsea Flower Show for 38 years. For 17 years before 1994, Pam Simcock designed and created South Africa’s winning exhibits at Chelsea.
Since then, David Davidson and Raymond Hudson have been responsible for designing and creating the Kirstenbosch-South Africa exhibit with a small core team and an enthusiastic crew of volunteers.
The Kirstenbosch centenary exhibit this year will be the 20th collaboration for Davidson and Hudson. Over the 38 years, South Africa has garnered 14 gold medals (bringing the total since 1976 to 31), as well as the Anthony Huxley Trophy (1995), the Lawrence Medal for the best floral exhibit (2006) and the President’s Most Creative Award (2008).
For the first time, the South African garden for Chelsea also includes an interior walk-through. The circular walk-through Kirstenbosch exhibit features Kirstenbosch’s Dell and cycad amphitheatre on one side, and the Protea Garden and mountain skyline on the other.
Highlights of the garden exhibit to Chelsea include representations of various historic landmarks still to be found in the gardens at Kirstenbosch.
* The Amphitheatre: After Kirstenbosch was proclaimed in 1913, the paths and steps leading up from the Dell through a natural amphitheatre that embraces the dell were paved and cobbled in local stone by Kirstenbosch stonemasons. By 1916, all but two of the species of cycads found in South Africa (at that time) had been planted in the amphitheatre. As a living collection, the amphitheatre now contains 37 of the (about) 40 southern African cycad species.
* Protea Garden: Established in 1916, the Protea Garden today comprises the restio, protea, fynbos, buchu and erica sections. The Fynbos Walk through the Protea Garden traverses the highest points of the garden and offers spectacular views of the eastern slopes of Table Mountain with panoramic views across the suburbs of Cape Town to the Hottentots Holland Mountains. The plants and views in this garden will be represented in the exhibit.
The Kirstenbosch garden at Chelsea has been sponsored by the South African Gold Coin Exchange, which has sponsored the SA National Biodiversity Institute exhibit for the past three years.
“Our experience at Chelsea over the years has been exhilarating, and being part of two centenaries is an added bonus,” says Davidson. “This exhibit shows the world the importance we put on our natural heritage and history.”
The Kirstenbosch exhibit to the Chelsea Flower Show will be recreated at the Garden World Spring Festival in Honeydew (July 25 to August 30). Follow the show at www.rhs.org.uk
GENERAL GARDEN TIPS
* Aloes are winter-flowering winners for your garden. Consider the orange-coral flowers of dwarf Aloe ‘Hedgehog’, which will add welcome winter colour in an indigenous garden, in large groupings and in containers.
* Dwarf heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica ‘Pygmae’) is a neat evergreen shrub with bamboo-like foliage that colours red in cold winter gardens. Grow in a container or as a low hedge (height 30-50cm) in composted, well-drained soil.
* Bud drop in citrus can be caused by lack of deep watering. Water citrus trees fortnightly and fertilise with a slow-release fertiliser formulated for citrus. Make sure water and fertiliser extends to the drip line of the branches and you will have great fruit this winter. - Saturday Star