Shahnee Stockigt, Author at Life is a Garden

New Guinea Impatiens

Admired for their large showy flowers and vibrant hues, Impatiens add a touch of glamour brightening up any space with masses of colour. With long lasting flowers and superior disease resistance, Best planted in a shady position. Impatiens are relatively easy and rewarding plants to grow. Frequent watering is the key to success and maintaining active growth. A good quality potting mix is essential in containers and in the garden and add plenty of organic matter and mulch when planting.

Stockists Kwa-Zulu Natal:

Blackwood’s Home of Gardening
Builders Warehouse – Riverhorse
Garden Pavilion Halls – Kingsburgh
Hingham Nursery – Durban North
Illovo Nursery – Kingsburgh
Builders Express – Amanzimtoti
Builders Express – Ballito
Builders Express – Hillcrest
Builders Express – Pietermaritzburg
Builders Express – South Coast
Builders Express – Umhlanga
Builders Warehouse – New Castle
Builders Warehouse – Durban North

**Please note that not all stockists will have every plant featured**

A1 Water Wise Poster for July: Argyranthemum

Seventh in a series of water wise plants to plant in the garden

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A1 Poster: Indoor Plant of the Month – July: Cyclamen

Poster for Indoor Plant of the Month for July – Cyclamen

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A1 Edibles poster – July Edible: Baby Cabbages

Poster for edible gardening in July: Baby Cabbages

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Lavender Margaret Roberts

A really tough lavender! Evergreen and bushy with narrow grey leaves, it produces its tightly packed, dark blue flowers throughout the summer. Grows in full sun.

Gauteng Stockists:

**Please note that not all stockists will have every plant featured**

Kalanchoe Pumila

Frosted silver foliage and contrasting pink flowers make this little plant a must for gardens. Kalanchoe love a full sun spot. They are drought resistant and burst into pink flowers in spring.

This is a super plant for rock or succulent gardens or areas in your garden without regular water. They will reach a height and spread of approximately 25cmx30cm

Kalanchoe need to be protected from severe frost.

Try them in containers or hanging baskets for vivid splashes of colour.

Limpopo Stockists:

Mpumalanga Stockists:

Garden Pavilion – White River

North West Stockists:

Western Cape Stockists:

Cape Garden – Joostenbergvlakte
Cape Garden – Somerset West
Cape Garden – Stellenbosch
Starke Ayres Garden Centre – Rosebank
Starke Ayres Garden Centre – West Coast Village
Stodels – Bellville
Stodels – Constantia
Stodels – Kenilworth
Stodels – Milnerton
Stodels – Somerset West
Builders Express – Kenilworth
Builders Express – Knysna
Builders Express – Stellenbosch
Builders Express – Willowbridge
Builders Warehouse – Cape Gate
Builders Warehouse – City
Builders Warehouse – Constantiaberg
Builders Warehouse – George
Builders Warehouse – Helderberg
Builders Warehouse – Table View
Builders Warehouse – Tygerberg

**Please note that not all stockists will have every plant featured**

Osteospermum var. ‘African Daisies’

The striking bold colours of this indigenous beauty clearly dispel all and any suggestions that indigenous gardens have to be dull, dreary and boring.

The genus Osteospermum belongs to the plant family Compositae (Asteraceae) commonly known as the Daisy family. The plant originates from South Africa, hence the common name ‘African Daisy’.

Osteospermums are relatively new to most gardeners, and were almost unheard of 25 years ago. They have risen in popularity during the last decade as they have become more commercially available, with a wide selection of varieties and colours being grown and sold in garden centres countrywide.

Today Osteospermums are considered a popular summer bedding plant. They are low growing evergreen shrubs with stunning daisy-like flowers that vary in colour, with unique petal shapes and unusual patterns. Most commercially grown Osteospermums reach a total height of about 50cm.

Like other indigenous daisy-type flowers, Osteospermums require full sun for the flowers to fully open. As such they are ideal specimens for rockeries, borders and flower beds. They are also highly suited to container plantings, with the prostrate growing varieties performing well in hanging baskets.

Although often labelled as annuals Osteospermums are in fact half-hardy perennials. This means they are frost tender and will not survive frost conditions. However in frost free area’s they perform as a perennial and if well fed during the cold winter months, should go on to survive for several growing seasons.

Osteospermums have low water requirements and offer a stunning water-wise option for the gardener. Ensure they are planted in well composted soil and while they only require minimal watering, they should not be allowed to dry out.

Flowering is encouraged by regular fertilizing and foliar feeding every 2nd week will ensure your plants flower for many months! Regular dead heading also promotes flowering and will ensure your plants look at their best, for longer.

Arctotis Red Radiance

Arctotis or African Daisy is a proudly South African variety of ground cover. It provides large and colourful daisy-like flowers that range from pink to red, yellow and burnt orange….. in fact just the colours that one would enjoy when experiencing an African Sunset.

Arctotis Red Radiance is an evergreen perennial that can grows to approximately 30cm in height. They tend to spread around 30-40cm when fully grown, creating mounds of vivid colour.

Although they will tolerate some shade they are much happier in sun where their blooms will open wide to display bright colour. The flowers are real sun worshipers and take on a life of their own as they close at sunset and won’t open at all on cloudy and rainy days.

These plants are the perfect subject to have in a garden as they produce an abundance of large, daisy-like flowers above tight grey-green leaves. They have a long flowering period ranging from autumn, through winter and into spring. Remove spent flowers to keep plants looking tidy and to encourage more blooms.

This indigenous ground cover prefers well drained soil and has average water needs. It is not too demanding on gardeners and only requires water when the soil is dry. That being said, regular water will produce lush growth and prolific flowers.

Arctotis Red Radiance is coast friendly, so grow them in your seaside gardens where they will handle salt laden wind and dry coastal conditions.

All in all, Arctotis are low maintenance plants that will perform best with regular feeding. They make a good ground cover that will suppress weeds ensuring you have more time to enjoy your garden.

Arctotis ‘Red Radiance’ has large brilliant maroon-red flowers.

Use them en masse as ground covers in mixed flower beds or grow them in rockeries. How about growing them in pots ……enjoy your African daisies, isn’t it wonderful that we can steal a little bit of an Africa sunset for our gardens.

Aloe arborescens

Aloe arborescens is a hardy, easy to grow garden shrub.

It has exquisite bright flower heads in bright orange or lime yellow which are borne in profusion during the colder months of June and July. Aloe arborescens is a bird and insect magnets and it is not uncommon to see a number of sunbirds gathering around the shrub.

These aloes generally reach a height of 2 m and if left unchecked will spread to an approximate 2 m radius. They make an excellent hedging specimen forming and almost impenetrable wall of foliage.

Aloe arborescens enjoy a full sun position and well drained soil. They make excellent coastal gardening shrubs and will handle a light frost.

Aloe arborescens are fast growing and will survive neglect and drought once established , in a water scarce South Africa this is a must have indigenous shrub!

Eastern Cape Stockists:

Free State Stockists:

Alma Kwekery – Welkom
Bruwer Kwekery – Bloemfontein
Builders Warehouse Bloemfontein
Greenside Kwekery – Bloemfontein
Urth Garden Centre – Bloemfontein

Gauteng Stockists:

Limpopo Stockists:

Mpumalanga Stockists:

Garden Pavilion – White River

North West Stockists:

Western Cape Stockists:

**Please note that not all stockists will have every plant featured**

July in the garden

Good gardeners always look ahead, even in the dead of winter. Apart from still planting deciduous trees, shrubs and climbers, one should also plant annuals and perennials which are just beginning to show colour now, as it will result in a rainbow of eye candy in early spring. Visit your local garden centre today, or miss out!

Eastern Cape

For spring fragrance in the form of lovely garden cutflowers, stocks (Matthiola incana) should be planted in large swathes now. Easy to grow annuals and perfect for gardens with sandy soil.

Hot tip: After giving your old containers a lick of fresh paint to make them look like new again, fill them up with fresh potting soil and combinations of indigenous colour like osteospermum, pelargonium, diascia and gazania – all in flower now!

Feed winter annuals and spring bulbs regularly with a water soluble fertiliser and keep on irrigating during dry weather, as the soil around them should never dry out completely.

Prune untidy shrubs not about to flower in spring, stake those which need sturdy support and replace ties where necessary. Also cut back ornamental grasses which have turned brown and dry.

Western Cape

Plant out lots of pansy and viola seedlings in well composted beds – the rewards are a welcome splash of colour to warm up those winter blues.

Feed clematis and fuchsias every two weeks with liquid fertiliser and pinch out the growing tips to encourage bushier growth and thus more flowers in spring.

Cut back bougainvilleas which have finished flowering, feed with a balanced fertiliser and water afterwards. Summer and autumn flowering climbers and shrubs like golden shower, barleria, ribbon bush, wild dagga and westringia also need pruning now.

Winter veggies for planting include cabbages, leeks, peas, turnips, carrots, radishes, beans, eggplant, pumpkin, broccoli, Swiss chard and Asian greens.

Spreadsheet showing retailers the top plants for July

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Lifestyle Home Garden Randburg Lifestyle Home Garden

Randburg

Effortless Beauty

Petunias are renowned for three reasons; they’ve been around forever (known since the mid 1700s at least), they’re generous bloomers and there’s a petunia to suit every season. Bellis, on the other hand, may sound more sexy and less common, but are precisely that, a sexy common daisy species. These companions reap relatively effortless rewards, perfect for low maintenance gardeners too busy or impatient for the more ‘uppity’ plants of the floral kingdom. Both can be planted now, preferring full winter sun, where they will grow and establish themselves, bursting into colour in spring.

The petunia’s trumpet-shaped blooms have a spicy scent and come in a variety of colours, including bi-coloured and double varieties. Although bellis’ colours are limited to white, red and various shades of pink, their single-stemmed blooms vary from the more common looking daisy with a single layer of elongated petals to the multi-layered pompom-looking variety. The larger flowering Bellis form more pom-pom like flowers of about 2cm in diameter, without much of a yellow centre.

Petunia

There’s always a Petunia to suit your needs: ‘Grandiflora’ have larger blooms, spread well and best planted in autumn and winter in summer rainfall areas. ‘Multiflora’ have masses of smaller flowers and are suited for planting in spring and summer in summer rainfall areas, their smaller flowers being more tolerant of rainfall, the same goes for ‘Millifloras’ (thousand flowers), which have small but prolific blooms.

Location:

Petunias behave best in full sun, needing at least six hours of full sun daily, perfect for those hotter areas of your garden, especially along a north-facing wall. They must have well-draining soil, particularly in a container. Avoid replanting in the same bed as previous petunias to give the soil time to recover.

Watering:

Once established, the trick with petunias is to let the soil dry out between watering.

The Long and the Short of It

July’s companions bring a cheery sight and smell to any winter garden. Both thriving in cooler climates, pansies and foxgloves are a statement couple. The long of it, foxgloves, grow anywhere from 60 cm to 1.8 m depending on your variety, bringing some vertical interest (as well as bees, birds and butterflies) to your garden. The short of it, pansies, grow to about 23 cm tall, better suited to the front row. Picture pansies encircling the taller foxgloves in a pot, or an island bed in your garden. The pansy’s name is easily deciphered from its origination the French pensée, meaning ‘thought’, no doubt derived from the pansy’s ‘face’ when it nods in thought towards the end of its bloom. Now, ‘fox’ and ‘gloves’ seem obvious, but there is much debate about how these lend themselves to the Digitalis family. Digitalis, understandably, means ‘finger-like’, referring to the thimble like blooms that fit perfectly onto your fingertip.

Pansies

For such delicate looking faces, pansies are pretty hardy plants, easy to grow and survive the bitter bite of winter. Their sweet fragrance perfumes the morning and evening air, particularly the yellow and blue varieties. Other colours include purple, red, white, violet, gold and even black (very dark purple).

Location:

Pansies love full winter sun or partial shade; they can survive light freezes and bloom throughout winter and spring. Perfect for front of borders and beds, or planted en masse among other flowers; they also work well in containers. Just don’t plant too close together as they need air flow.

Watering:

Water thoroughly about once a week, depending on rainfall, and try to water the soil around them and not their leaves or petals.

Care:

If we happen to experience a late summer you will need to mulch around newly planted seedlings to keep their toes cool.

How to re-pot a plant successfully! #potplants Read more here

A1 Water Wise Poster for June: Cape Thatching Grass

Sixth in a series of water wise plants to plant in the garden

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A1 Poster: Indoor Plant of the Month – June: Guzmania

Poster for Indoor Plant of the Month for June – Guzmania

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A1 Edibles poster – June Edible: Peas

Poster for edible gardening in June: Peas

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Tea Bush (Leptospermum Cherry Brandy)

Brilliant, bright and bold – Leptospermum is a plant that will perform spectacularly in gardens throughout South Africa.

Leptospermums are indigenous to both Australia and New Zealand where they are commonly called ‘Tea Tree’ and in the latter, ‘Manuka’.

The common name ‘Tea Tree’ is derived from the practice of early Australian settlers who soaked Leptospermum leaves in boiling water to brew a herbal tea rich in Vitamin C. It is further suggested that this tea was used by Captain Cook himself, to prevent scurvy amongst his crew.

In New Zealand, Leptospermum has health benefits more closely associated with Manuka Honey which is produced from bees feeding on the Leptospermum flowers. This honey has strong antibacterial and antifungal properties.

Leptospermums are a vast and diverse species, with several varieties making superb garden plants with low maintenance and hardy properties.

Leptospermum ‘Cherry Brandy’ is a popular dwarf cultivar that grows to a height of around 0.5m. This compact evergreen variety produces a mass of ‘cherry red’ flowers during flowering, resulting in a blaze of brilliant colour that will transform any flower bed! The small leaves are aromatic and dark green in colour with wine red tinges. New foliage growth is brilliant red in colour and as such Leptospermum ‘Cherry Brandy’ is almost always in some form of colour in the garden.

Leptospermums should be transplanted with care but once established are easy to grow requiring low maintenance. They perform well in full sun positions and prefer sandy, well composted soils with good drainage being essential. They also make excellent container plants!

Leptospermums are hardy, drought and wind tolerant plants that perform well in sandy coastal conditions and tolerate salt spray. As they thrive in dry conditions they are an excellent water-wise plant that can be grown successfully in most parts of the country.

Nandina Pygmaea

Nandina domestica is an elegant small evergreen shrub of upright, bamboo-like habit, the compound leaves with lanceolate leaflets that turn bright fire red during winter. Mature plant size may vary due to growing conditions and climate, ±50cm x 50cm.