2013 is a milestone year – as Kirstenbosch Garden celebrates its centenary, along with The Chelsea Flower Show, where it’s just won its 33 gold medal.
Just 100 years ago Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden was a run-down derelict farm – now,
“100 blooming years” later, it is arguably the most beautiful garden in Africa and an icon for botanical enthusiasts internationally…
The Chelsea display is a circular, walk-through exhibit featuring the Dell and Cycad Amphitheatre on one side, and the Protea Garden set against the iconic Table Mountain backdrop on the other, courtesy designers David Davidson and Raymond Hudson, who endeavoured to create a stunning, sensory walk where visitors experience the beauty and tranquility of being enveloped in the heart of Kirstenbosch.
The display features some of the “Centenarians”, the garden’s oldest and most distinguished residents. These are plants that have been growing at Kirstenbosch for 100 years or more, or were introduced during the first five years, 1913-1917, and are still here today.
By 1916 all but two of the species of cycads found in South Africa (at that time) had been planted and this Living Collection – that today contains 37 of the ±40 southern African cycad species– and remains a world-class, living gene-bank of these ancient and remarkable plants.
Not all of the specimens are 100 years old. Some are cuttings, offsets or seedlings of the original plants and have been propagated and grown at Kirstenbosch over the past 100 years. Centenarians on the exhibit include: gardenia thunbergia, oldenburgia grandis and aloe plicatilis amongst others.
The Chelsea exhibit invites visitors to “Come into the garden” and offers a snapshot of South Africa’s unique botanical heritage – and chance to explore this fascinating World Heritage site.
Why don’t you venture south and see the real thing yourself?