Where it all started

Born in sub-tropical Tsumeb in Namibia, Hein grew up appreciating the myriad of fruit trees and plants in his area. His suburb was full of colourful gardens alive with birdlife and insects, and he made pocket money mowing the neighbours’ lush lawns. His grandfather was involved in the Succulent Society of South West Africa (now Namibia), and Hein inherited his love of horticulture.  

The move into his home in Boston, Belville coincided with the severe drought that struck the Western Cape, and so Hein was inspired – if not forced! – to come up with a long-term plan for his garden. The plan was to not only make the most of the space, but also to remain waterwise and rely predominantly on seasonal rainfall. Inspired by horticultural writer Monty Don, Hein’s plan remains true to the ethos that gardening is about the learning experience and remembering it won’t always look it’s best.

Phase 1: Laying the foundations

Because of the water restrictions, Hein spent the first year tending to the soil. For months he added compost and other organic matter to what started as typical Cape Flats sandy soil. Soon he had a rich medium that provided a nutrient-dense environment for planting in the years to come.

Phase 2: Decisions, decisions

Once he was ready to plant, the next phase was meeting expectations: Hein’s partner wanted a tropical garden, whereas Hein was after a waterwise garden that was full of character. To meet both briefs, he decided to dedicate the back courtyard to a lush, tropical paradise under the shade of an enormous avocado tree. Hein planted tree ferns and clivias in this shady spot. He has an impressive collection of both indigenous and exotic potted orchids, which he moves around this space as he sees fit.

But the front garden is where the true magic lies. Hein managed to save three old Iceberg floribunda roses during the drought and planted a selection of trees: small flowering cherries, saucer magnolias and crab apples. The sloping side garden – which previously turned into a swamp in winter – was split-levelled and turned into a small orchard: 6 varieties of citrus, dwarf apple, pear, fig, nectarine, quince and cherry trees were planted, as well as seasonal veg.

Hein managed to get hold of spring bulbs from Stodels – daffodils, freesias, ixia, sparaxis, chincherinchee, ranunculus and anemones – and planted them in the empty beds beneath the trees. The next spring, the magnificent array of flowers appeared – and he was hooked! They grew without watering, and they were easily removed in summer for replanting the following year.

Phase 3: Tackling the pavement

During the second autumn in his home, Hein decided to focus on the sidewalk garden. First, he opted for olive trees, a variety of fynbos (including leucadendrons, leucospermums and King proteas), Cape myrtle and Cape plumbago. He then sowed handfuls of poppies, daisies and other annuals, and baby bulbs sprouted from the previous season’s freesias, ixias and sparaxis. This show-stopping array of colour is noticeable from a distance and adds a cheery, low-maintenance border to a space that’s usually neglected. 

Come summer, he’ll leave the flowers to go to seed and cover the area with mulch before replanting next autumn.

The future 

Hein’s five-year plan for his garden – of which there are two years left – is to have a largely self-sustaining garden. He aims to spend the next two seasons “filling the gaps”: underplanting the front garden with more waterwise perennial shrubs and fynbos, including ericas, low-growing proteas and restios.

He will, of course, leave patches dedicated to bulb planting in autumn, and salvia and dahlias in summer. His cheery garden just wouldn’t be the same without them! The challenge of a cottage-style garden means he will always have something to do in a space that is so therapeutic to him. 

“Allowing yourself to get lost in the life cycle of a bulb, germinating an annual, picking your own chillies or even enjoying a large palm in your bedroom… that is the best kind of therapy,” says Hein. 

We couldn’t agree more. Feeling inspired? Follow our guide to growing flowering bulbs here.

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The bulbs that are available at your nearest Stodels Garden Centre might not look like much now, but they’ll reward you with a magnificent display of flowers when spring arrives. 

Follow our simple, step-by-step guide on how to make bulbs flourish in your garden: 

Plant indigenous bulbs 

Go the indigenous route if you can, as these bulbs are primed to grow well in South Africa.  

Our list of favourites includes:  

• Watsonia 
• Tritonia 
• Babiana 
• Sparaxis 
• Ixia  
• Lachenalia 

Steer clear of bulbs that have sprouted and those that don’t look healthy when you’re shopping. A good, healthy bulb should be firm to the touch. And remember to plant your bulbs soon after you’ve purchased them. 

When to plant spring bulbs 

Autumn is the best time of year to plant spring-flowering bulbs, as the soil is still warm, giving the plants’ root systems a chance to develop before the temperature drops in winter.  

Use this simple monthly guide: 

• March/April: Plant ranunculus, anemones, tritonias, ixias, freesias, sparaxis and babianas. 
• April/May: Plant hyacinths, lilies, tulips and daffodils. 
• August/September: Plant gladioli, liatris and dahlias. 

Where to plant your bulbs 

Bulbs that prefer lots of sunshine include ixia, babiana, ornithogalum, sparaxis, tritone and ranunculus. In turn, allium, hyacinth, freesia and leucojum do better in shady positions. However, they can handle a bit of early-morning and late-afternoon sun.  

Bulbs that require some protection from the hot midday sun include anemones, tulips, hyacinths, narcissus, daffodils, ixia, muscari, lachenalia and Dutch iris.  

Think carefully about your vision for your garden once the bulbs start to flower. Spring bulbs make for beautiful borders in garden beds, while those with striking foliage work particularly well in containers. 

Ribbon planting in solid blocks of colour is very well suited to large gardens or alongside paths or driveways, whereas bulbs planted in drifts and clumps make for a more informal look. Go for indigenous bulbs if you’d like to add interest to a rock garden.  

Soil requirements for bulbs 

• Bulbs do best in cool, well-drained soil.  
• The best soil for flower bulbs is sandy loam. Sandy soil can be improved with organic matter such as compost as well as water-retaining granules. If you have clay soil, add some coarse sand and compost to improve the soil’s texture and to allow for drainage. 
• Prepare your garden beds or containers at least 7 days before planting your bulbs to give the fertiliser a chance to dissolve. If you skip this step, the fertiliser could burn the bulbs.  
• Dig a hole that is as deep as the length of a spade (about 1.2m) and add lots of compost. Don’t use fresh manure, as this may damage the bulbs.  
• Dig in a handful of planting fertiliser or bonemeal per square metre to a depth of 30cm and moisten the soil. 
• If you’re planting in containers, add water-retaining granules to slow down water loss during the dry months. 

Plant bulbs at the right depth 

Read planting instructions carefully, as every bulb is unique. A good general rule is to plant bulbs at a depth of three times their height. If you’re planting your bulbs among established plants, dig the hole a little deeper than required. 

Watering and feeding bulbs 

Watering your bulbs regularly and correctly is incredibly important, as the roots need to be kept continuously moist from the moment the bulbs have been planted. If water restrictions allow, use a sprinkler and water the bulbs for approximately 45 minutes every 4–5 days. Monitor bulbs planted in pots carefully, as they tend to dry out very quickly. 

Feed with a handful of 2:3:2 fertiliser per square metre every 14 days after planting to encourage growth. Once the first shoots start to appear, feed the plants with bulb food once every two weeks. 

When to expect your first flowers 

• End of July to August: Daffodils such as Paperwhites (these flower very early in the season), Flower Carpet, Fortune, Ice Follies, Trevithian, Winter Gold and Juanita, and ranunculus, Dutch iris, anemone, leucojum and hyacinth. 
• August: Daffodils such as Barrett Browning, Birma, Early Splendour, Margaret Mitchell, Monique and Orange Bell, and ranunculus, Ipheion, muscari, Dutch iris, anemone, freesias, leucojum and hyacinth. 
• End of August to mid-September: Daffodils such as Acropolis, Buttercup, Cheerfulness, Home Fires, Mount Hood, Pink Select, Tahiti, Thalia, Salome (very late) and Minnow (very late), and ixia, sparaxis, ranunculus, tritonia, Ipheion, muscari, tulips, anemone, freesias, leucojum and hyacinth. 

Expert tip – don’t forget about autumn-flowering bulbs if you want some colour to keep you cheerful during the colder months. Here are some of our favourites: 

• Crocus 
• Dahlia 
• Nerine 
• Sternbergia 
• Cyclamen hederifolium 

The post Your guide to growing flower bulbs appeared first on Stodels.

Go for the following plant combinations and you’re all set for gardening success:

• If you’re planting cabbage or other brassica vegetables, add dill or rosemary to the same garden bed and your veg will flourish.
• Sage and rosemary make great garden companions, while thyme helps to keep your vegetable garden healthy by warding off common garden pests. 
• If you’re planting leeks, cauliflower or beans, throw in a celery seedling or two. This soup and salad superhero will help the other vegetables to grow better.
• Almost all vegetables fare better when a lavender bush is planted close by.
• Plant marigold in close proximity to tomatoes, brinjal and sweet chillies. These easy-to-grow plants help to keep soil diseases in check and act as a natural bug repellent. 
• Roses fare better when chives are planted close by. Try the same trick for apple trees.
• Nasturtiums are not only pretty and whimsical, they also help to protect broccoli and cabbage from aphids.
• Tomatoes favour growing close to parsley.
• Mint thwarts aphids on nearby vegetables and other plants, while peppermint gives the flavour and quality of cabbage a boost.
• Plant nettles to boost the growth of tomatoes and increase the aroma of origanum, sage and peppermint.

Green fingers itching? Shop online for your seeds, seedlings and garden accessories. 

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Both of these summer-flowering plants can be introduced to your garden with ready-grown seedlings that are available in punnets of six and punnets of four (stronger plants). Many brightly coloured varieties are available, which makes planting them even more rewarding, as you can mix and match colours to your heart’s content.

Marigolds

These reliable, long-lasting, heat-tolerant annuals range in height from 15cm to a metre tall, with cream, lemon, gold, orange or copper flowers. Many of the modern cultivars don’t have the same pungent scent as older varieties and they can flower so profusely that you can hardly see the foliage.

Uses: Dwarf marigolds are useful for edging paths, while tall varieties are best used for borders. They brighten rockery pockets, containers and hanging baskets, and can be grown between rows in the vegetable garden, where they’re a deterrent to nematodes in the soil.

Needs: Plant marigolds in a sunny spot, in well-drained soil. Add compost.

Tip: Pinching off the first three or four buds will encourage bushier growth.

Our favourite: ‘Vanilla’, an unusual, cream-coloured hybrid.

Gazanias

These indigenous bedding plants have grey-green leaves and are incredibly easy to grow. Gardeners can take their pick from numerous hybrids with large blooms and beautiful colours, which range from red, orange and pink to yellow, cream, white and bicoloured.

Gazanias are perennials that flower continuously during spring, summer and autumn.

Uses: Borders, decorative edges, groundcover, in rockeries and in containers. They’re particularly beautiful in indigenous gardens, where they provide pops of colour.

Needs: Plant them where they’ll get full sun most of the day. Although gazanias have low water needs and are tolerant of poor soils, they perform best in well-composted soil that drains well. Watering them regularly means they’ll produce more flowers.

Tip: Plant gazanias close together, as they don’t grow very tall (10cm) and tend to spread in low, even clusters.

Look out for: The large-bloomed ‘daybreak’ gazania hybrids.

Tips for success

• Mix masses of compost and a controlled-release fertiliser into the soil when you’re planting. Add planting fertiliser or bonemeal to allow for strong root development.
• Fertilise the plants every two weeks with a liquid fertiliser.
• Remove faded flowers to allow for growth.

The post Two hero plants to add to your garden appeared first on Stodels.

Most flowering plants, such as honeysuckle and lavender, release their scent during the day, when light and temperature are at their peak. They do this in order to attract daytime pollinators like butterflies. Other flowering plants, such as evening primrose and angel’s trumpet (brugmansia), release their scent at night, as they’re pollinated by insects that are active after sunset.

Leaf-scented plants, such as rosemary, lavender, thyme and basil, release their scent when their leaves are touched or crushed. To experience their aromas to the full, plant them along pathways or as ground cover between paving stones.

A few tips for using fragrant plants in your garden

• In South Africa, summer holidays are synonymous with long, lazy lunches and dinners enjoyed outside on the patio or in the garden. Add to the experience by planting sweetly scented flowering plants where you’ll be entertaining your guests or spending time as a family.
  
• Plant scented trees and shrubs in various prominent areas of your garden. Popular options include the false olive, gardenia, cheesewood, bride’s bush, frangipani, yesterday-today-and-tomorrow and Mexican orange blossom.
  
• Lavender is aromatic, easy to grow and incredibly versatile – the flowers can be used in summer cocktails and home-made body products, and even in shortbread cookies and other sweet treats. Plant lavender in the sun and enjoy its scent throughout the season.
• Another good choice is McConnell’s Blue rosemary. This hardy, drought-tolerant herb smells divine and looks beautiful, too. Plant the rosemary close to your kitchen so that it’s easy to pick the herb for use in roast lamb and other dishes. 
• Put window boxes and pots on the patio to good use by filling them with scented plants. The closer the plants are to the rooms you spend most of your time in, the more you’ll be able to enjoy them.
• Use sweet-smelling climbing roses and jasmine to create scented canopies throughout your garden. Choose white night-blooming flowers such as moonflowers to add a touch of magic to balmy summer evenings.
• Avoid placing too many scented plants too close to each other, as it may become hard to distinguish the different smells from each other. You want to be able to enjoy each scented plant’s unique aroma when you spend time outdoors.
• Scented leaf pelargoniums offer a variety of scents that are released when the leaves are brushed or touched. Plant Pelargonium citrosum if you tend to be bothered by mosquitoes when you spend time outside – this plant smells of citronella oil, which repels mozzies and other insects.
• Plant scented climbers such as white mandevilla or Chinese wisteria, which has sweet-scented lilac blooms. Star jasmine, with its masses of scented white blooms, is easy to grow and looks beautiful, too. Grow it as a climber, a sprawling shrub or as clipped ground cover. Indigenous wild Jasminum multipartitum can be used either as a climber or as a loose shrub. 

The post Plant a scented garden for summer appeared first on Stodels.

Bring this bright colour into the garden with a joyful range of spring annuals, perennials and bulbs (found at your nearest Stodels Garden Centre) in borders, on banks, and in rockery pockets and containers. Our garden experts have a few bright ideas to add colour to your spring garden with indigenous flowering plants:

1. Fill bigger gaps with indigenous flowering trees. Pretty trees to colour your spring garden include the tree wisteria (Bolusanthus speciosus) which grows to a height and spread of 4–7m and has a slender form and slightly weeping branches, with mauve pea-shaped flower trusses. The purple broom (Polygala myrtifolia) has beautiful clusters of mauve flowers and can be grown as a small tree or shrub, as it reaches a height of only 2m.
2. Play with scent as well as colour. It is not only the colours of spring that delight, but also the scents found in the butterfly bush (Buddleja auriculata) and the creamy-white, bell-shaped flowers of September bells (Rothmannia globosa).
3. Brighten up a water-wise rockery. Orange-red kalanchoe, gerbera and ursinia in sparkling orange, and the glistening flowers of magenta mesembryanthemum all thrive on rockeries. 
4. Plant every angle with colour. A sunny slope is ideal for aloe, lion’s ear (Leonotis leonurus), plumbago (Plumbago auriculata), protea and leucospermum. Even a slight slope is perfect for arctotis, felicia, gazania and mesembryanthemum, which need good drainage.
5. Decorate stairways, windows and terraces with bright pot plants. Emphasise a flight of steps with pots of showy pelargonium zonale. Place a pot or two in empty spaces in the border, or combine them with their scented-leaf relatives. Ivy-leafed geraniums (Pelargonium peltatum) with shiny foliage and flowers in pink, red, amethyst, purple, salmon and yellow will burst into life if planted in window boxes and hanging baskets. 
6. Plant in blocks of colour. Compact plants such as Cape daisies, vygies and nemesia look spectacular when planted in clumps of colour. The colours of gazanias include cream, lemon, gold, bronze, russet and maroon-red. Many are bicoloured; whilst others display a contrasting colour around the central disc. The ursinia’s daisy-like flowers come in shades of yellow and orange with red and black centres.
7. Give your shady areas the colourful treatment as well. The dusty-pink forest lily (Veltheimia bracteata), bush lily (Clivia miniata) with trumpet-shaped blooms in shades of orange and yellow, and Clivia nobilis with pendulous dark orange flowers and green tips will colour shady areas in your spring garden. The forest bell bush (Mackaya bella) is a dense shrub with glossy green leaves and bell-shaped white flowers with mauve veins that thrives in semi-shade.

Looking for something specific? Book one of our garden experts for a consultation to discuss design ideas unique to your space and style. 

The post Indigenous garden colour ideas appeared first on Stodels.

How to keep cut flowers fresh in a vase: 

• Handle your cut flowers with care and in a cool area. Remember that cut flowers are essentially alive and that rough treatment could send the buds into shock, which will reduce their vase life. 
• Ensure that your vase is clean and thoroughly disinfected. 
• Remove all leaves from the stem that may come into contact with the water in the vase.
• Cut the stems at an angle before placing in water in a vase. The fresh cut will ensure proper water absorption, whereas the angle will prevent the stems from sitting flush on the bottom of the vase. Recut the stem every few days, as scar formation on the cut stem will cut off the water supply.
• Whilst still attached to the mother plant, blooms are fed with water and nutrients. Once cut, this food supply is also cut off. Feed your cut flowers with a specialised cut-flower feed, like Chrysal, that not only feeds the flower, but is also antibacterial and will maintain the correct balance within the water to allow for maximum absorption.
• Ripening fruit gives off ethylene gas, which can poison flowers, so place the arrangement away from your fruit bowl.
• Flowers also emit some ethylene, so it is best to place them where there’s fresh air circulation. Do not place your vase in direct sunlight.
• Do not change the water but, when necessary, top up the vase with more cut-flower feed solution in the same concentration as that in the vase.
• Never spray your flowers with water, as this will encourage fungi on the petals and leaves to develop, which will spoil your flowers.

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