Cape Cousins - South African Plants

Mholo! Sawubona! Thobela! Lumela!

Did you know? Many of our Aussie garden plants have cousins on the same latitude as Sydney and Esperance, on the coastal southern tip of Africa.

The similarity of climates means many southern African natives have made their home here.

The South African fynbos or 'fine bush', the typical flora of the region, has leathery or needle-like leaves tailor-made for standing up to long hot dry days full of bright sunshine and little rain. Perfect for Australian gardens too!

The flora found on the southern tip of Africa, in South Africa, Eswatini, and Lesotho, is called the Cape Floral Kingdom.
It's the smallest of the world's six floral kingdoms by far, yet one of the richest in plant life. Over two-thirds of its plants are found nowhere else on earth in the wild.

And yet, somehow, Cape Floral plants make fantastic garden plants, beloved around the world!
Let's meet some of the South Africans you could encounter in your neighbourhood.

 

Protea

Aussie garden favourite protea is such an iconic South African flower that it's the name of both their international cricket teams.
Maybe ours could be named after flowers too - the Banksia XII?

That would make sense because proteas and banksias are closely related; in fact many southern African plants have close relatives here in Australia.

Proteas and leucadendrons are first cousins of native coneflower (Isopogon) and woolly bush (Adenanthos); and second cousins to banksia, waratah, ivory curl (Buckinghamia), hakea, grevillea, and macadamia!

It's why many southern African plants make such great garden plants for us, as they enjoy similar climates and conditions to many of our native plants.

 

There are around one hundred difference species of proteas occurring naturally, and dozens more cultivated varieties. Proteas are excellent florist flowers - big, sturdy, longlasting, full of visual impact - and so breeders regularly create new colour and shape combinations for floral display.
We carry Pink Ice and White Ice, large resilient varieties ideal for garden growing.

Proteas are sometimes known as sugarbushes, or suikerbos, because of their nectar-rich flowers - a favourite lunch spot of little birds!

 

Leucadendron

Closely related to the protea is the leucadendron; it shares the same bold impressive size, and firm leathery leaves to protect against the hot sun.

Leucadendrons make the most of their leaves with intense bright colour (and in at least one species, a coat of soft silver hair).
Leucadendron 'flowers' are in fact adapted leaves, brightly coloured - peer inside the cup and you'll spot the true flowerhead, like a small pinecone.

And like proteas, there are over eighty species of leucadendrons, many of which are amazing cut flowers for bouquets and arrangements - they're also big, sturdy, longlasting, and full of visual impact!

We carry ten varieties in season, from bold golden and maroon kinds to more dainty slender red-and-white, and lemon yellow.

 

Bird of Paradise

Like a flock of tropical parrots in flight, these astonishing flowers are yet another Cape favourite of stylish florists.
Birds of paradise (Strelitzia) flowers are big, showy, and come on long smooth stems, and in the garden the flowers rise clear of big broad paddle-shaped leaves. Or slender spoon-shaped leaves.

There's even a bird of paradise that grows as tall as a palm tree, with huge palm leaves and astonishing unique navy-blue-and-white bird-like flowers.

You might be forgiven for thinking these plants are South American, as they all have that lush carnival vibe (and they're related to gingers) - but birds of paradise are so South African there's a rare clear yellow variety called Mandela's Gold.

 

Aloes & Pokers

These two South African plants look very similar, especially in flower.

Both have long smooth stems topped with red-orange-yellow cones of tubular flowers.
Both are loved by nectar-eating birds and mammals.
Both grow well in full sun and light sandy soils.

Aloes are succulents, so their leaves are firm, fleshy, sometimes with sharp little teeth along the edges.
They will survive a snowfall but a hard frost can crush those juicy stems.

Red hot pokers (Kniphofia) are distantly related to aloes, but closer to a different kind of plant family that includes day lilies, native blue flax lily, and NZ flax.

You can see this resemblance in pokers' foliage, which is long, slender, grassy. These plants can die back in winter but are frost hardy, so they will return again each spring.

Cape Daisies

For many gardeners, cape flowers mean Cape daisies!
And there's quite a few flowers that go by this name or similar.

All are amazing garden plants for fast bright colour, sunny locations, cruisy easy-care results. No wonder they're so popular!

They mix and mingle happily, and can be planted together in your garden or in pots on your balcony. Feed and water them regularly and they will keep those blooms pumping out, right through the warmer months.

Gerbera aka African daisy have bright flowers that look like they were drawn by a kindie kid. The stems are long and the broad leaves soft and deep green.

There's a huge range of colours and styles of gerbera, some very unusual, as - guess what! - they are a favourite of florists worldwide.
Most of these are only available for commercial growers, not home gardeners. In fact most people come across these flowers in a bouquet rather than in the garden.

Gazania have big vibrant flowers in bright citrussy colours, often with a central ring that gives them a sunflower feeling.
The leaves are small and very slender, and sometimes a silvery colour.

Gazanias are frost-tender, so in areas with cold winters, grow them as seasonal potted colour to enjoy until winter.
Some species can self-seed, so we don't ship these to SA where they have naturalised. However we also carry sterile gazanias that won't self-seed. Gazanias for everyone!

 

Osteospermum have bright colourful daisy flowers like gazania and gerbera, and small deep green leaves.

Osteospermum colours are more unusual than gerbera and gazania, with pinks and purples in the mix, shaded and ombre effects, picotee and ring markings, and some antique shades.

Osteospermum plants can soon bulk up and grow to quite a large bush of flowers, giving you a lot of daisies for your money.

 

Gerbera, gazania, and osteospermum come in a big range of bright colours, with so much choice; but one colour they don't come in, is blue.
Enter Felicia!

That unusual feature is how it gets its common name of blue daisy bush. The blue is a lovely soft almost-mauve which blends well into most garden themes and schemes; and the flowers themselves are on long stems standing proud of the foliage, and small enough that they can mix it up in a cottage garden border and with dainty flowers in a planter.

Summer Bulbs

Did you know that many of our favourite summer-flowering bulbs come from southern Africa?

Tall showy dramatic canna, bright calla (Zantedeschia) with their conical flowers, tall spires of gladioli.

Yes, Australian national treasure Dame Edna's beloved trademark gladis are, in fact, South African!

 

There's lots of lovely bulb flowers that originate from southern Africa.

Despite their name, Jersey and Guernsey lilies (Nerine) are South African; their glamorous clusters of pink-red flowers and long smooth stems are another florist favourite!
(Are you sensing a theme here? South Africa has so many beautiful flowers perfect for bouquets and arrangements!)

Belladonna lilies (Amaryllis), with smooth tall chunky stems topped by multiple massive trumpets of flowers, are South African plants too. The pale pink blooms pop up on bare stems in spring, before their leaves grow, gaining them the alternative name of naked ladies!

In the appropriate season, you'll find all our bulbs here when it's the right time to plant; the rest of the year our post When To Plant Bulbs will help you out.

 

Agapanthus, Clivia, Society Garlic

These three close relatives are all technically bulbs too, belonging to Amaryllidaceae - the big Amaryllis family.

You can see the similarities between them - long strappy leaves in a clump; long tall smooth stems; clusters of trumpet-shaped flowers at the top of the stems, arranged in a whorl.

Agapanthus are the biggest of the three, with some varieties getting to chest high in full bloom (though we carry smaller ones too, some very petite in size).

Agapanthus flowerheads are full and round with so many individual florets they can form a complete ball of blooms. Agapanthus flower in shades from all white through blue and lilac, to deep purple and navy.

Species agapanthus - we sell these as 'blue' and 'white' - can self-seed, and these plants have naturalised in some local areas of some states.
Named cultivar agapanthus tend to be less fertile than the species forms, and some species are sterile so will not viably self-seed at all.

Which is good news for many of us because they are really good garden plants.
They are valuable for bank binding and erosion prevention; they love growing in containers in urban balconies and back yard decks; and they put on a great show in cottage gardens and mixed borders.

 

Clivia are smaller than agapanthus, reaching around knee high on average, and flowering mainly in shades of orange, yellow, and peach.

Unlike agapanthus and society garlic, clivias enjoy dappled light or even shade, which along with their compact size means they are excellent indoor plants - that's the category you'll find them in on our this website.

If you live somewhere that's warm or protected from frost year-round, they're great border underplanting. We've seen them thriving in the middle of Melbourne in a completely shaded urban yard.

Like agapanthus, clivia seem to flower more enthusiastically when they are a little root-bound - another great reason to grow them in pots!

 

Society garlic (Tulbaghia) are the most petite of the three relatives here, with low ankle-high clumps of very slender leaves, and (relatively) towering slender smooth stems topped by tiny pink, white, or pale purple flowers.

They are very pretty when mingling in a cottage garden border, lining a path, and popping up in pots on a patio.

Despite their dainty delicate appearance society garlic are awesome rugged landscaping plants, really fast to flower and very cruisy when it comes to maintenance. Keep your eyes open and you might see them planted in your local park, or outside the shopping plaza.

No wonder (like many of the plants here) they are one of our most popular plants!