After several years’ hiatus, the popular annual plant sale organised by the Albany Branch of the Botanical Society of South Africa is being reinstated.
After several years’ hiatus, the popular annual plant sale organised by the Albany Branch of the Botanical Society of South Africa is being reinstated.
This year the sale will be held in conjunction with the Grahamstown Flower Festival at the Makana Botanical Gardens this weekend.
As always, the sale will offer a mouthwatering selection of indigenous plants to local gardeners at extremely competitive prices. The proceeds thereof will assist the society to continue to promote the cultivation, values, traditional uses and conservation of flora of the Albany area, which is recognised as an important centre of floral biodiversity, and to help initiate a number of potential collaborative projects with the local community and schools, the Makana Botanical Garden and Rhodes University.
The plants on offer include a diverse range of groundcovers, perennials, ferns, bulbs, succulents, shrubs and trees. The range includes nursery-grown plants as well as plants grown by branch members. Plants suitable for a wide range of garden and landscaping situations will be available. A range of bulbs and succulents indigenous to the Coega area has been generously donated by the Coega Rescue Nursery near Port Elizabeth, which grows and propagates an array of traditionally important, threatened and ornamental plants rescued from the Coega estuary area prior to its development.
Over 20 tree species will be on offer. The well-grown specimens are 0.3–1 m tall and include yellowwood (Podocarpus latifolius), milkwood (Sideroxylon inerme) and the spectacular Nuxia floribunda. The range of flowering shrubs includes king protea (Protea cynaroides), buchu (Acmadenia and Agathosma spp.), Mackaya bella, the wonderful local creeper Clematis brachiata, various bulbs (e.g. Scadoxus multiflorus subsp. katharinae, Veltheimia bracteata), herbaceous plants (including a selection of pelargonium and plectranthus species) and attractive succulents.
In addition to the plants for sale, a plant of Erythrina acanthocarpa (Tambookie thorn), a striking coral tree found only in the Queenstown district, will be auctioned, and two seed-raised plants of Oldenburgia grandis, a distinctive gnarled tree occurring on rocky outcrops in the Grahamstown area, will be raffled and auctioned, respectively.
Visitors are also invited to purchase plants for donation to the Makana Botanical Garden or make a small monetary donation. These plants will help with the development of beds in the gardens. So if you have been enjoying the botanical garden recently, now is your chance to make a small contribution to the ongoing rejuvenation of this wonderful garden.
For more information contact Craig Peter on 046 603 8598 or email c.peter@ru.ac.za
