Monsonia in the Magaliesberg

Monsonia burkeana, I think, is this nice white flowered species I saw in the Magaliesberg mountains north of Pretoria in 1993. I wandered around on a farm where all kinds of neat things could be found among the rocks, more of which I will share later. Even avid gardeners generally have never heard of monsonias, though they are close relations of the much more popular genera Geranium and Pelargonium. Some are annuals with a weedy look, but others are perennials which produce flowers all summer long, like this one and the similar M. emarginata, which is occasionally available from South African seed sources. Monsonias make huge interesting seeds with a coiled structure that unwinds when wet, allowing the sharply pointed seed to dig its way into the soil. Some also have fragrant leaves as is common in Pelargoniums. The most outstanding species is Monsonia speciosa, easily grown if you live in a mediterranean climate or have a cool greenhouse, but more of a challenge to those of us who don't. It has spectacular pink veined flowers which resemble a giant dianthus. It can be grown from seed, and plants can be propagated from root cuttings as well.

Wildflowers in Botswana

I finally got a scanner so I can begin converting my extensive slide collection into digital pics, and here are the first results from my 1993 trip to Gaborone, Botswana and nearby areas. Here are four different flowers, the yellow hibiscus may be Cienfuegosia digitata, the purple creeper is Aptosimum elongatum, the yellow flower in the Kalahari sand is Bulbine (maybe B. abyssinica) and the orange red one is a Tricliceris (older generic name:Wormskioldia) longipenduculatum (or a closely related species). All of these are ornamental plants, and I have B. abyssinica in pots and have grown Tricliceras before. I have tried off and on to get the Aptosimum seeds to germinate thus far without success, I imagine they like heat and sun to do well. I'd really like to get it going, since it has stunning deep purple flowers. It was quite common right in Gaborone, along with Sanseveria aethiopica, an aAbuca species, Crinum lugarde (in wetter areas), Felicia mossambadensis, Talinum caffrum, Pterodiscus speciosus, Ipomaea bolusii, and a Portulaca species. Botswana has quite a few nice flowering plants, more of which I hope to scan and blog about later on.

Neches River Mallow

Hibiscus dasycalyx is an endangered plant in its home state of Texas, where perhaps considerably less than a thousand plants exist in the wild. Yet it makes an easily grown and long lived garden plant. I got my plant at Fairweather Gardens in NJ several years ago during one of their open house events. It has a more graceful, though vigorous, habit than most other perennial hibiscus, and the somewhat smaller flowers are more in scale with the foliage. It comes up late, though it is perfectly cold hardy despite its Texas origins. It starts flowering in July and will continue until fall. Copious seeds are set in bristly capsules, and are annoyingly painful to clean due to said bristles. I've had some volunteers from self sown seed, which I give to a friend who likes hibiscus and also intend to transplant to the school garden next spring. In its native range H. dasycalyx is a wetland plant, but it has no issues growing under normal garden conditions, so long as it gets decent sun.