Tour Kirstenbosch: A Stunning South African Botanical Garden

Filed under: Gardening, Garden Tours

Take a virtual walk through the most beautiful garden in Africa.

Thanks to the FIFA 2010 World Cup, hosted by South Africa, Kirstenbosch now has many more fans worldwide to supplement its strong local support base. While it is one of nine National Botanic Gardens in the country, it is touted as the most beautiful...


This gorgeous garden plays host to every type of visitor: the serious botanist, the horticulturist, the home gardener, the flower lover, the herbalist, the gift-buyer, the bibliophile, the picnicker, the photographer, the student, the hiker and the ladies who lunch. And let's not forget the children who need to get their feet wet in tadpole-rich mountain streams and roll on endless lawns, the elderly who are driven around on neat little golf carts, the blind or visually impaired, for whom a Braille Trail and a Fragrance Garden were designed, and above all, seekers of peace and beauty.

Have I left anyone out?

I am lucky enough to have known the garden since I was a teenager, but I am beginning to look at it with newly appreciative eyes, as I become more and more interested in how and why gardens work.


Situated at the foot of the eastern ramparts of Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch's location is impossible to beat. The dramatic green slopes dominated by Castle Rock and Fern Buttress support a natural and indigenous mix of Afromontane forest in the koofs (ravines) and fynbos (fine bush) in the open spaces.

Down below in the gardens, plants indigenous not only to the Cape Peninsula, but to the whole country are planted in specific sections. Kirstenbosch was in fact the first botanic garden in the world to devote itself to the indigenous flora of a country when it was founded in 1913.

The oldest part of the garden is the Dell, dominated by shade trees (African Holly - Ilex mitis), tree ferns (Dicksonia antarctica) and shade-loving plants, such as plectranthus, clivias (Clivia miniata), streptocarpus species, blood lilies (Scadoxus multiflorus) and foxtail fern (Asparagus africanus), with a clear stream that gurgles between a stepping stone footpath.


Colonel Bird's bath is still the site of midnight skinny dipping sessions for brave students of the University of Cape Town, but it remains off limits to law-abiding souls. The stepped bath is fed by underground springs and spills clear, clean water into the stream that meanders through the gardens below. The bird-shaped bath was built by and named after one of the early owners of the Kirstenbosch estate in 1811. The water was piped to his house after it had clarified in the pool.


Above the cool and shady Dell is the hot and sunny Cycad Amphitheatre where cycads, the oldest seed-producing plants in the world, have been collected. Many cycads are endangered in the wild due either to the destruction of their habitat or, more insidiously, to unscrupulous cycad collectors buying from disreputable sources who gather plants from the wild. The nursery at Kirstenbosch propagates plants from this collection of southern Africa cycads which are sold to the public to take the pressure off the wild population.


Known as African or Nile lilies in the rest of world, agapanthus are an extremely popular garden and commercial landscaping plant. They also make wonderful cut flowers. Most garden agapanthus are hybrids of Agapanthus praecox.

They are one of the first flowers to greet summer visitors at Kirstenbosch, with recent hybrids flanking the entrance at the upper gate and now appearing in almost every shade of blue, from the palest whisper of the color to a deep purple black. There are also combinations of white with drops of blue. To make life even better, many of these hybrids are available to local gardeners at the nursery in the Centre for Home Gardening, where you can get expert advice from Richard Jamieson who has bred these beauties himself.

Near the upper entrance of Kirstenbosch (known as Gate 2) is the Fragrance Garden. A sinuous path weaves between raised beds of fragrant and highly tactile plants growing at waist level. The signage, which is also in Braille, explains what the plants are and how they can be used.

Brushing against the velvety leaves of native Pelargonium tomentosum releases a strong scent of peppermint into the air. Honey-scented helichrysum is both feathery to the touch and warmly perfumed. Fox-tailed fern is soft unless you press too hard: Watch out! This garden is often visited by children who are so often told to look but not touch. Here they are invited to touch everything.

Opposite the Fragrance Garden, the Braille Trail leads into preserved Afromontane forest along a wide mulch track, with a thick, strong rope for guidance along the edge. Here, shade, birdsong and stream sounds accompany the signposted walk.

On the protected slopes of The Table Mountain National Park, animal visitors are also present. Little grey mongooses might trot silently along the edge of paths, hunting for insects and small rodents. Bat eared foxes have in the past raised their pups in the nearby shrubs and let them out to romp on the upper lawns in the evenings. Elusive rooikat (meaning red cat, describing the caracal) have been seen here on rare occasions in the early mornings or evenings. Cape river frogs breed in the mountain streams, spotted eagle owls raise their young in the trees of the garden, and on the lawns flocks of guineafowl and small families of Cape francolin stroll. Sugar birds, sun birds, canaries and prinnias flit through the flowers and grasses.

One local rodent is a real pest: The grey squirrel eats the seed of strelitzias (known as birda of paradise in the rest of the world) before they can be harvested for propagation. Consequently, special wire cages are built around the drying flowers to lock the squirrels out.

 

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