Aloiampelos tenuior – Common names: Fence aloe, Slender aloe or ‘Heuningaalwyn’.
Aloiampelos tenuior is a bushy, multi-branched, climbing succulent that occurs naturally in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Kwazulu Natal and Mpumalanga. It was formerly known as Aloe tenuior, but Aloiampelos means ‘climbing plant’, and it was changed to name a group of climbing or rambling Aloes.
If you are looking for a succulent with a long flowering season, free-flowering and showy plant, then this Aloe is the one for you. Aloiampelos tenuior is suited for rockeries, retaining walls, terraces, mixed garden beds and borders and en masse planting. It needs full sun but can tolerate semi-shade although it will flower less.
It is also a good container plant and with a little help can be encouraged to climb up a fence or a trellis. Although in nature it can grow in poor soil, it is best to plant Aloiampelos tenuior in compost enrich, well-drained soil, and to give it a good mulch of compost in springtime. Whilst they can withstand dry conditions, it will perform better with regular watering – especially in the dry spells in summer. It can withstand light frost, and it is also wind-resistant, making it a popular coastal plant.
The Aloiampelos tenuior is a small to medium evergreen, with sprawling shrub stems which are slender and grow upright, but tends to need support from surrounding shrubs to remain upright. The leaves are thin and slightly fleshy without any spots. It is crowned in a lax rosette at the ends of the branches, and the leaf margins have small teeth. Being a fast-growing shrub, this Aloe can become untidy and needs regular pruning to keep tidy and encourage more flowers.
Delicate yellow flowers (red and orange-red) are borne in a slender rosette nearly year-round but mainly from late winter into late summer and are visited by bees for pollen and nectar.
The root and leaves are used in traditional medicine as purgative and tapeworm remedy.
This easy to grow, undemanding and free flowering Aloe will transform any garden in a riot of colour when in full bloom.
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Euryops is an indigenous plant group from the Cape for the Cape. Winters in the Cape can be wet, windy and cold but with Euryops in your garden, your day will be filled with warmth and colour.
Euryops is a group of evergreen, hardy and bushy shrubs that grow fast, and are wind and frost resistant. They need a sunny position and will tolerate some semi-shade but will flower less. Plant them in well-drained loamy soil that contains plenty of compost. They are good landscaping plants where colour is needed, and because they are fast-growing, they quickly fill a gap in any sunny position. They are great plants for mixed borders, mass planting and rockeries. Euryops are low maintenance and only need pruning after flowering in spring to keep its shape. Also, every 2 to 3 years prune back hard to keep plants from becoming woody. In spring, give a good layer of compost, especially in coastal gardens.
Euryops are free-flowering shrubs that attract birds, bees and butterflies to any garden with the flowers also lasting some time in a vase.
Euryops pectinatus:
Common name: Golden Daisy Bush or Harpuisbos (afrikaans)
It is the shorter more compact growing Euryops with attractive, soft grey-green foliage and bigger, yellow, daisy-like flowers throughout the year but more in winter and spring. The flowers stand above the foliage, making it a striking eye-catcher specimen in any garden. Deadheading will help to prolong the flowering season.
Euryops virgineus:
Common name: Honey Daisy
The common name says it all of this Euryops. When flowering, it smells like a pot of honey and hundreds of bees will hover around the bush. Euryops virgineus’ foliage is a fine, dark green, fern-like foliage and at the end of winter hundreds of small yellow flowers will cover the plants for weeks.
If you need an indigenous plant with little fuss and a lot of joy, then Euryops is the plant for you.
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Pruning and winter go hand in hand and play an essential part of a plant’s care whether it is a tree, shrub or groundcover. July in the Cape is rainy, windy and cold outside but this is the time to do pruning to encourage healthy growth, flowers and fruit for summer.
Why do we need to prune?
1. Your first objective is to maintain the health of your plants by keeping your plants free from dead or diseased branches, and encourage new growth and healthy-looking plants;
2. Prune to shape your plant as it grows, especially when it is young to make it bushier or more compact when using plants as a hedge;
3. To prevent a plant getting too large for the space it was originally planted in, or when blocking a beautiful view;
4. Plants can become old and leggy, but you can rejuvenate them by pruning them back, especially fast-growing plants needs regular pruning;
5. Prune to correct some defect like eliminating branches that rub against other branches, or so that more light or water can reach the inner branches or improve air circulation. Pruning branches to correct the balance between the crown and roots promotes healthy plants;
6. If your plant is a flowering or fruiting type, you need to prune to encourage the best conditions for prolific flowering and fruiting. Additionally, this allows air and sun to reach fruit in the centre;
7. To achieve sculptural shapes, known as topiaries, the two-dimensional pattern achieved by pruning and tying fruit trees or shrubs to a frame (known as espalier). The deliberate dwarfing of certain trees or shrubs that mimic the shape of fully-grown trees in a small container (known as bonsai). These are all fashion novelties, and these differently trained or shaped plants are used as an architectural elaboration of your house.
Pruning is more than simply cutting of branches of a tree or a shrub to keep it from overgrowing. Pruning is the key to controlling the size or shape of your plants, their flowers and fruit. It also promotes new life in your garden as well as healthier and better-looking plants.
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My favourite houseplants aren’t actually that unusual or exotic. The plants that make me happy are, and you have guessed right, yes, it is succulents! I love to use them in my house, not only as houseplants but also in informal flower and plant arrangements. Succulents remind me that beauty can be found in the ordinary and that not everything has to be structured in life.
The surprising variety of sizes, shapes and colours makes them stunning decorative houseplants. Miniature varieties such as Haworthia will fit on the narrowest windowsill, and trailing types such as Senecio (Curio), provide striking displays in hanging baskets. They are among the easiest of plants to grow indoors and are every bit as beautiful as they are rewarding. Anyone interested in foliage house plants should consider growing succulents indoor.
Growing Succulents Indoors requires 3 basic rules
Start with the right soil and container
If you are planting your own succulents, buy and use a fast-draining cactus mix. If you can’t get hold of a cactus mix, make your own by using 4 parts potting soil and 1 part either coarse sand or perlite. Also, ensure that your pots have enough drainage holes as good drainage is vital. Because succulents grow slowly, they seldom need repotting.
Watering your indoor succulents
Killing your succulents by overwatering them is far more common than underwatering them. Succulents like it when the soil dries out between watering. You must know that indoor succulent plants require a certain amount of neglect. They need little watering since they have the ability to store their own water supplies within their fleshy leaves, stems and roots. If you water small pots once a week and large pots about every second week, it will be sufficient, but always check and feel first if the soil is dry. Remember they need less watering in winter than in summer.
PS. If you were lucky to receive a succulent houseplant in a container without drainage holes, you have to water even less.
PPS. In addition to watering, fertilize every spring with a liquid fertilizer.
Light
The trend of modern architecture towards larger windows and open interior spaces, as well as the use of air-conditioning for heating and cooling, provide excellent growing conditions for indoor succulents. They grow best in bright light, and even a few hours of direct sunlight will help to develop their best foliage colours. Just imagine how Sempervivum tectorum, Euphorbia triculli and the Euphorbia milii will flower in bright light. NB: please remember Euphorbia species are poisonous and caution should be taken when using indoors. Portulacaria afra, Senecio ficiodes, Cotyledon orbiculata and flanaganii, Crassula ovata and muscosa, Aeonium arboreum, and Echeveria elegans will get leggy if not in bright light. East, south or west windows that get a few hours of direct sunlight, is the best position for succulents. Sansevieria trifasciata and Aloe vera are the exceptions and they will tolerate fairly low light levels.
Succulents, given the proper conditions and a minimum of basic care, will provide pleasure for years.
Please send us some photos of your indoor (or outdoor) succulents. We will love to see them!
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If you ever have to choose one spring-flowering indigenous plant for your garden, it surely has to be a Clivia miniata. The bright orange flowers add a warm flair to any garden, are long-lasting, and signal the end of winter. Being endemic to Southern Africa, it means that they do not occur naturally anywhere else in the world. The rest of the world also has a love affair with Clivia plants making it a collector’s item for many Clivia-lovers.
Growing Clivia miniata is easy
… and very rewarding. Plant in dappled shade under trees in well-composted soil – the compost will also help with water retention during dry periods. In summer (the growing season of Clivias) the plants should be watered regularly, especially newly planted plants. Older plants can tolerate fairly long dry periods. Clivias are spectacular container plants and should be grown in a well-drained potting medium which is enriched with compost. Give Clivias a good compost feed once a year and always have a layer of mulch spread on top of the soil. It will help cut down on watering and it also mimics their natural growing conditions.
Clivia is a fairly slow-growing plant and forms a neat clump of strap-shape dark green leaves, while the roots are thick and fleshy. The bright orange flowers appear around September in an umbel of funnel-shaped flowers with yellow flushed throats. The flowers make good cut flowers and last up to 2 weeks in a vase. The flowers are followed by a round red fruit with yellowish seeds embedded in a similar coloured pulp, and the seed takes up to 10 months to ripen. Always keep your eye on your Clivia flowers because snails can destroy them overnight, leaving you with ugly flowerless stalks.
How to grow the Lily of the Bush
Clivias can be propagated by sowing the seed or dividing the clumps. Note that plants grown from seeds normally takes 3 to 4 years before flowering! Clivias are a crowded grower but will benefit from being split every 4 to 5 years. Dig up the plant after flowering in spring. Lift the plants from the ground and pull the plant apart, separating individual stems with a healthy portion of roots. Replant the division but make sure not to plant the plants deeper than they were previously grown in. Water thoroughly after planted.
This lily of the bush attracts a host of insects to the garden and are suitable for forest, formal, tropical or woodland garden themes. They are specifically spectacular in mass planting under large trees.
There are different subspecies of Clivias (Clivia caulescens, Clivia Gardenia, Clivia mirabilis and also the yellow Clivia miniata var. Citrinus) with different flowering times.
If Protea cynaroides is the king of South African plants, then surely Clivia miniata must be the queen.
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