June 2024

After no newsletters for over a year, you are now getting bombarded with another “hot on its heels”.

It is a terribly boring subject and something that has made our hair VERY grey over the years especially recently since we have stopped using the South African Post Office.

I am very friendly with one of the Post Office employees at Kenilworth Post office where we used to take our mail right from the very beginning of Silverhill seeds when Rod and Rachel bought the business.  Mario has become a personal friend and he is always willing to help as well as let us know if there is a parcel that has been returned that is waiting at the Post Office to be collected.

Many of our South Africa Post Office branches have been closed and employees retrenched or moved to other offices.  A couple of months ago the SAPO came to an agreement with Ethiopian Airlines we believe and our parcels are slowly being delivered.  We do have a problem with Witspos in Johannesburg, we never get a response from them and some of our parcels have been there for over a year now, they just don’t seem to getting rid of their back-log.

We apologise to our customers that have had a problem with their postage over the last year and we do hope in the future MAYBE the SA Post office will get back to its original strength.

We are offering other postage options now and they are all working very well.

Royal Mail (https://www.royalmail.com/)

Yes this is exactly what it is.  We use a company here ( Mailwise: https://mailwise.co.za/) that sends our/your parcels to the UK and they are then “put/inserted” into the Royal Mail postage system.  Some of our older customers will member we used to do this when my son was living in Inverness, but he came home, so we had to change that strategy until we got a call from this company.  We have been very happy with their service and we can speak to a human if we need to know, so there is also a personal touch.

• Your parcel takes 2-3 days to arrive at the Johannesburg Depot, we send every Tuesday from Cape Town.
• Once the consignment arrives at the depot, items get sorted the following day.
• Parcels get handed over to the airlines on a Friday and normally depart on a Saturday night/Sunday morning…. If a shipment gets bumped off the flight due to weight restrictions the parcels will then leave on the first available flight again.
• The parcels undergo clearance which normally takes a day or two, and our suppliers collect the next day once the parcels have been customs cleared….
• Parcels will then be “injected” into the Royal Mail postage system the day after material has been received at the depot in the UK.
• If parcels have departed on the weekend as booked, we pre-alert our suppliers on a Monday and tracking numbers will be available from Tuesday afternoon/Wednesday morning to hand over to the clients.

We can send parcels either TRACKED or UNTRACKED.

• Tracked: This is the more expensive option, but works well for our customers who would like to “watch” their parcel travelling and need their seeds and books urgently.
• Untracked: Much cheaper than tracked and parcels seem to arrive with no hitch and nearly as fast as the tracked option.  For a small amount of seed, this makes it very affordable to get seed to you from our wonderful selection

Courier

Fedex, DHL, UPS

Fedex is certainly the cheapest option for sending smaller parcels especially to the USA, but comes with its own challenges.  Very often UPS is cheaper for the larger book orders.  We are very happy to get you a variety of quotes to see what will be the best for you.

If we send parcels courier our customers have to be aware that they will need either or both the following: Phytosanitary Certificate and/or Import Permit.  There might be other documents that we have no idea of and you as the customer need to help us in this regard as we don’t know every countries import conditions.

We have even had a customer or 2 emailing us regarding changed requirements or links that we have not updated on our website and this is very appreciated by us as well as new customers visiting our website for the first time.

Import Conditions

 

 

As above we don’t know when conditions change or what they are and rely on you our customers to help us with this.  We can supply a Phytosanitary Certificate, some countries want a Certificate or Origin, we can also supply this.

We send emails from our website when you order regarding the import conditions we know about, we do this for your information and for no other reason.

If you choose to send without the documents, we are very happy to send via either of the 2 Royal Mail options.  We cannot say it will not be confiscated, but it is the option where small parcels might “slip” through, we also cannot be held responsible if it is confiscated by customs.

Customs duties/VAT/Tax

 

Please be aware these are charges we don’t know about as each country will have its own sliding scale of charges. Some customers have had to pay huge amounts and others not.  We are not responsible for these charges, each customer in each country is responsible for their own import charges for their parcel.

 

Thank you to all of our customers for being so understanding over the last few years with our difficulties and for those who have so often pointed us in the right direction to try and find the information we may need.  It I am sure has been frustrating for all of us, but your patience is really appreciated.

 

Newsletter 6: November 2022

To all our new customers, the longstanding ones, the patient ones, the frustrated ones – Thank you for being there.

After over a year of no newsletter I decided it was time to try my hand at another newsletter.

Well AT LAST we have the NEW WEBSITE………. after much trial and tribulation, frustration, and inconvenience to all… including you, our extremely supportive and patient clients.

Thank you!!!

URL: https://silverhillseeds.co.za/

We are hoping that it will prove more user friendly for the clients who know what they want as well as those who are novices. Each of us here have been doing test runs to iron out every “glitch” and problem as much as we can. Ordering, changing the order, using the different formats, different styles of payment…… and all this whilst dealing with our famous “Load-shedding”! (We have long periods where our electricity is off and unavailable to us. Seriously frustrating.)

“Loadshedding” is a new word in the South African language. This occurs when ESKOM, our power supplier turns off our electricity for 2 and a half hours at a time.  Sometimes this can happen 4 times a day, depending on the excuse – coal is wet, power stations break down after no maintenance for 25 years.

The odd thing is that Namibia buys electricity from us, and they are not affected by loadshedding. I crossed the border at Alexander Bay and while in customs, on the SA side, the power went off and on the other side of the river in Oranjemund, the lights were burning brightly!

Thankfully Cape Town is shielded a bit from this as we have Koeberg Nuclear Power Plant as well as Steenbras Hydro Electric Plant which provides us with a buffer from the rest of the country. We have put some solar panels and batteries so Silverhill can now function seamlessly though the gaps in service.

 

I have started going on seed seeking and collecting trips.  It is starting very slowly, but it has started.  I am doing day trips round the Peninsula and going a bit further afield on other day trips.

 

Weekend or longer trips are also on the cards. This year I went to Namibia with Paddy..  He is always game for a road-trip, his wife not so, but it is wonderful to have his company, and we had a great week, long days, and much mileage. There was so much rain the last wet season and the grass was in some places mid-thigh high. When speaking to the locals we asked how the rain was and all they said was “look at the grass” The grass was certainly a sight.

 

 

I have also done some shorter trips to Niewoudtville, Tanqua karroo and surrounds both Wendy and Louise have been happy to come with me on various occasions.  Both have a huge knowledge of indigenous plants, and it is wonderful to learn from them.  I am slowly beginning to feel like I am learning, and names are sticking as I learn what the plants are looking like. I do still look at fruit/seed if there are any, it usually helps me with identifying plants.

 

Couriers

For those customers who want to make use of these or other couriers.  You will need a Phytosanitary Certificate and/or an Import Permit.

As soon as we send you your tracking information

…you can telephone or email the courier in question and ask if you can start the clearing process straight away.

Get the name or contact details of the imports team in your country and send them the waybill, commercial invoice, phytosanitary certificate and any other regulatory documents you need to import seeds in to your country.

This should speed up the delivery of your shipment.

 

 

 

PROTEA SEED COLLECTING AND CLEANING

Below is a short explanation that Anthony Hitchcock prepared for us in 2019 that we have not had a chance to publish yet. I do hope this gives you some insight into how Proteaceae is cleaned and when we say we need time to dry and sort seed, you have an idea of how long it might take before we can send your seeds to you.

It is important that our customers know about the seed we provide for them. The process of collecting, drying, cleaning, and storing the seed is intensive and time consuming. This is a short explanation of what is involved when processing Proteaceae (Protea, Leucospermums (pincushions), Leucadendrons (conebushes), Serruria and Mimetes seed for our customers.

Planning is very important as it involves travel, time and fuel which is costly. We try to access seeds of the species that are popular with our customers wherever possible. However, we need to collect legally within the permitting system in South Africa. This means that we can collect from private land with landowner permission.

Collecting from natural areas such as reserves is not permitted without a valid permit and permits will not be given by conservation authorities for commercial businesses such as ours. For Silverhill to get permits for these areas we would have to establish ‘Mutual Benefit and Sharing Agreements’ with each authority managing reserves and conservation areas for each species collected. These agreements would have to be signed by each customer for each species and records of every commercial sale be kept with a portion of the proceeds being returned to South Africa to be shared with the authority in charge of the land. The time to manage this, keeping such detailed records and following up is not worth the effort. It is doubtful that our customers would have the time either.

With our collecting permit we can collect from private landowners with their permission. Our collecting is therefore limited to flower farms, but this means that the rarer and unusual species are not available unless there are growers cultivating them.

Collecting Proteas is easier than Pincushions, Mimetes, Serruria and some Leucadendrons which are only seasonably available.

Protea seed:

Collecting Proteas is intensive and never ending because there is good demand. We must be careful to only collect flower heads that have not been predated by grubs which burrow into the seed head (capitulum) ((see picture below) and destroy the seed from below. Flower heads with burrow holes in the base are discarded. Some species and some Protea stands may be infested which adds to the time taken to select the seed heads. Regina and Etina are our dedicated Protea seed cleaners and must carefully sort and select for viable seed. This requires lots of concentration and regular sampling of seed by cutting them open with secateurs to see that we are sorting properly.

 

We keep records of what we have in stock and what is drying so we know when to collect more seed. Drying can take up to a few weeks and cleaning is a slow process. Protea seed heads are laid out in crates that must be spread out to dry and packed away every night, a laborious process.

Predators: We must be very careful that the seed is not stolen by predators such as rodents or doves. The most destructive problem is the grey squirrel which will eat their way through a crate of pincushions in short time. The crates must be packed out where these animals do not have access or wire cages placed over the crates.

Collecting Leucospermum and Serruria and Mimetes

is intensively seasonal and requires careful monitoring to determine when the flower head is ready for plucking. This means numerous trips in a short period of about two months to collect at the right time. Too early the seed is still green and useless, too late and it has fallen,or been harvested by rodents or birds.

These Genera need to be spread out in crates and packed out and away daily to be aired and dried. If this is not done the moist flower heads will become covered with fungi. Daily monitoring is required.

Once all of this is done, we will then need 5 days to fumigate your seeds to make sure there are no insects when we send your seeds to you.

 

 

 

 

For South African Customers: Join a fynbos plant identification course.

Are you a fynbos fan who would like to be able to identify what you are looking at?

Wendy Hitchcock is a trained botanist with over 30 years of field and teaching experience and offers regular 4 day fynbos plant identification courses in Cape Town.

“I am not affiliated to any educational institution, and I have designed this fynbos plant identification course over the last 20 years in the best way there is: by learning alongside those who have attended the course and adapting the way the information is presented.”

Unfortunately Wendy is not ready yet to offer on-line courses, but maybe if enough requests come through…….. you never know.

Frustrated with plant names?  Join a Fynbos ID course to help you know where to start and efficiently use plant guides – www.wendyhitchcock.co.za

 

 

FAREWELLS AND HELLOS

Julia

After 2 years with Silverhill decided it was time to move on. She will still be in contact with us but is busy working with U Turn ( https://homeless.org.za/) doing a fantastic job showing folk how to grow and create their own supply gardens. We are proud of her as she is really helping others who are in need to better themselves, we do see her now and then and she is still full of “bubbles”.

Jenny

Jenny has also left us after 5 years of sterling work with us, retirement was calling.  We thank her so VERY much and really hope she enjoys her happy little garden and having some time to do the things she would like to do. She will be missed, (especially her fantastic scones) and we wish her well.

Erica

My daughter is also working for Silverhill on a part time basis packing orders efficiently and checking every detail. This certainly, takes a load off us having to do it.

Nina

An introduction to a new staff member – Nina Dunbar-Curran, she is the youngest full time staff member. (I remember being the youngest in the office and bringing the average age down to about 73 at the time!) She joins us to help fill in the spaces left with our departures. Nina is married to Pat’s Son, and they have a little boy of nearly 3 Benjamin who keeps her on her toes. Nina has taken over doing the Phytosanitary Certificates she brings energy, youth and a fresh approach to our little business. She has taken up the reins very efficiently and seamlessly and is keen and eager to do any job asked of her and it is fantastic to have her energy in the office.

Etina

Has also joined us on a part time basis to help Regina clean our Protea seeds. We were running a bit behind and needed a helping hand.

OTHER STAFF:

Pat is still with us. Her daughter, son-in-law and grandson James have moved in with them. Being Granny is a full-time job and keeping her and Kenneth young. Kenneth had a bit of a health scare earlier this year, but he pulled through well and is still able to help us with computer issues as well as all the book photographs on the website.

Kirstin has relocated to a foreign clime, (Dubai) with her family.  Dave (her husband, is based in the Middle East). Because of technology she can continue in her capacity of bookkeeper whilst helping her daughter negotiate a new school and setting up a new home. We get to wave at her over the computer now instead of seeing her personally, thankfully things are so much easier to do nowadays. Their furniture has not left SA yet, but hopefully will do so in the next week or so, so she has a couch for Christmas and a Christmas tree!

Dorothy is now processing orders and doing it efficiently and very well. She has also started learning how to use a computer, which will be a huge bonus for her and us. She still cleans seeds if the orders slow down a bit and is always there if Regina needs help.  Anthony and Julia taught them very well. Dorothy also got married recently after a good many years of courting.

Regina is still working very hard and oversees all the seed cleaning. Which seeds need to be done first, which we need in a hurry and what we have that haven’t been cleaned yet. She has recently become a grandmother and there was much excitement when the birth happened. Regina also comes along when we collect Protea seed, a wonderful outing which blows the office cobwebs away.

The animals still grace us with their presence in the office. The dogs have beds in the office, and we enjoy having them around. The cats walk in and out. They seem to like Regina’s chair and as soon as she moves, they hop on and make themselves comfortable and she has to find a new chair.

 

 

 

 

Happy Growing until our next Newsletter

                                          Ondine and all of us from Silverhill.

 

February 2021

Dear Customers

What can we say except “What a Year”!!!!

To those who ordered this last, year a HUGE thank you for your patience and understanding with our postage trials.

To those who will order going forward – I do hope things will be smoother with anything to do with Postage.

A warm welcome to our new website, hopefully you find it easier to use as the old one which was nearly 23 years old and in this age of technology that is incredibly old.

We will be updating descriptions/growing information as well as adding as many photographs as we can in the coming months so please keep a look out.

The website is not as fully automated as it could perhaps be, the reason being is that postage of your parcels is weight dependant and there is a huge variation in the weight of seeds from Erica’s dust like seeds to Sclerocarya (Marula) which has heavy seeds.  We will see if in time we can adjust this.  We are also still wanting to keep our personal touch, so feel free to send us emails, we never want to lose that part of Silverhill no matter how technology moves on.

We have also had to increase our prices sadly.  We have not had a price increase in +/-6 years and it is time we do so.  We do hope this is not going to be too much of a shock to you our customers.

Many of the photographs on the website are with thanks to Rod and Rachel who after having travelled widely over the 30 years they had the business, managed to photograph many plant species.  There are also pictures from various other contributors and I thank them very much for allowing us to use their photos.

It was the first year Thomas and I actively went out to identify plants and to mark where they were and when we should go and collect seed.  I thought we did quite well as it was only our first year of “hunting” and we are hoping that this year will be even better.  We certainly had a lot of fun, new roads, new people and some wonderful camping and lunch spots, and can understand why Rod and Rachel spent most of their time out-and-about.

 

Loving cats must be a “Silverhill thing”                                               

I have taken the plunge and opened an Instagram account (Silverhillseedsandbooks), I am not a great social media person, but as a business we have to move with the times and I certainly will get better with posting things as I get used to using it.

Our staff compliment is just about the same:

• Kirstin doing the bookkeeping and generally keeping me “in-line”.
• Pat working in the office, who has welcomed the arrival of not 1 but 2 grandchildren this year.
• Jenny in the Seedroom busy counting out and packing up your orders.
• Our 2 seed cleaning “ladies” Regina and Dorothy who keep our supply of fresh seeds cleaned and packed away and their constant laughter is wonderful in the office.
• Thomas, who cannot do his usual “day job” of Tour Guiding, is also coming in and counting seed and making up orders for us and his precision ensures that our parcels are packed with utmost care and accuracy.
• A warm welcome to Julia who has joined the team. Julia comes from a Nature Conservation background and also worked at the Millennium Seed Bank at Kirstenbosch where she worked for a fair number of years.  With her organisational skills, we should be on top of not only the office, but the seed hunting too!  Added to that she is the Mom to 3 delightful little boys. We welcome her to the family and hope she is with us for many years to come.

Other staff matters:

The ever-patient Kenneth, who is Pat’s husband, does a lot of the driving, fetching, and carrying as well as standing in the Post Office queues with 50+ parcels, that need to be sent to you, our customers.  Both Kenneth and Claude (Jenny’s husband) are to be thanked for the Photographs of the books for the website.

Wendy Hitchcock and Louise Nurrish for their help with collecting seed and identifying plants and the excitement when doing so!

Cherrie who worked with me and before me for Rod and Rachel, decided at the beginning of 2020 that she wanted to retire, we wish her the best and when I last chatted to her, she was enjoying her walking in the mountains, hacking alien plants in the mountains, and generally enjoying her retirement.

Sadly, we had 2 deaths last year, Euphonia who used to clean our seeds passed away in April, and our very own mischievous seed collector Anthony Hitchcock sadly passed away in July.  We will most definitely miss Anthony’s pranks in the office and his wicked sense of humour and of course his HUGE amount of knowledge.

 

Anthony in a old Podocarpus elongatus

In the last 3 years I have met many contacts of Rod & Rachel’s and I would like to thank each them for their help and imparting their knowledge to me.  I have started learning and I am so excited about the next year and following years of my education.

The Saunders Field Guide to Gladiolus is in the pre-print stage and we are hoping it will be available towards the middle of the year.  Find out more about the Saunders Field Guide to Gladiolus here: http://saundersgladiolusguide.com/

Here is hoping that 2021 will be a better year all round and thank you once again for your ongoing support – without you our customers, there would be no Silverhill Seeds and Books.

Happy Planting, stay safe, but most of all stay happy.

Ondine and The Silverhill Team

 

Silverhill Staff @ our belated end of year party

Back Row: Regina, Jenny, Thomas. Kirstin, Dorothy

Front Row: Pat, Wendy, Ondine with Islay (Kirstin’s daughter), Julia, Erica (my daughter)

Missing: Louise who was “gardening up a storm”

May  2019

Dear Plant Lovers

This Newsletter has been a while in the making and I must apologise as I am sure you are all wondering how we are doing.

Rod and Rachel’s house was sold at the end of last year and we had to move out.  After a bit of hunting we found a small unit in a light industrial park, not a stone’s throw away from where we were about 12 years ago (for those who remember).

Our moving day dawned cool and somewhat wet, which was not a good sign as we had all our books to move, but thankfully it ended up being quite easy.  There were shelves already set up, so we moved books from shelves at Silverhill to shelves in our new bookroom.

The seed shelves were a bit more challenging, but with Andy’s help and incredible packing skills we got all the shelves down in 2 trips.

The seed crates were fairly east to move as they could be stacked in the cars, so we all made a few trips up and down.

We got a small removal company to help with all the big bits and pieces; fridge, bookshelf as well as some crates of uncleaned Protea seed, which was great, each one was carefully wrapped, so we did not lose a single seed!

A huge thank you to Kenneth for getting our computers up and running.  Cherrie, Jenny, Andrea and Euphonia for the packing and driving up and down.  To Pat, for her calmness and organisational skills.  Kirstin for being the very best sister ever and just being so practical. To Andy for the brilliant packing skills, Thomas for his patience with us and doing some of the heavy work.  Lastly to Erica (my daughter) who gave up her holiday to lend us her young muscle and for being patient with her stressed mother. ( left anyone out?)

 

We all came back into the new premises from the 7^th of January and started catching up on the backlog.

We have had a few teething problems with the workflow, but are working it out slowly.  We are also using a new invoicing program, which has taken quite a bit of getting used to, but seems to be quite easy to use and is making things much easier in the office.  I do realise some of the personal touch has gone, but am hoping that for you, our customers, and for us it is making things a bit easier.

The books are much more visible and will be a lot easier to browse through, if you come in to buy a book or 2.

The office staff consist of Pat and Kirstin.  Cherrie and Jenny are the soldiers completing your orders and Euphonia is cleaning seeds for us.

Anthony Hitchcock formerly of Kirstenbosch is now our collecting guru as well as helping me with some of the more difficult questions, one gathers a lot of information and I have over the last 20 years, but 40 years is a whole lot more knowledge than I have been able to assimilate as yet and I thank Anthony for his unending patience with me and always being willing to help.  Anthony is not in the office, but pops in now and then to stir the ladies up with his jokes, he works from home a lot of the time.

I have asked him to put together a list of some interesting plants that you might like to try and grow yourselves as there are some species that are little known in plant circles.

Lobelia valida ‘limestone lobelia’
Lobelia valida is a superb, fast growing herbaceous perennial up to 40cm high producing a breathtaking profusion of exquisite blue flowers during summer. The plants branch from the base producing attractive, densely crowded leaves with toothed margins. They thrive in alkaline or acidic, well-drained, organically rich soils and is particularly breath-taking when massed in groups. This rare South African plant is a superb perennial and easily grown from seed.

Metalasia aurea ‘Golden Metalasia’
Metalasia aurea is a densely branched South African shrub from the eastern Fynbos region.
Metalasia muricata is close relative commonly used by landscapers in South Africa, but whereas it has white flowers, Metalasia aurea has exquisite golden-yellow flowers and a more compact growth habit ranging from 0.8 – 1.2m in height. In every way this species is superior to other Metalasias and new to horticulture. It is very easy to grow and maintain and flowers from autumn to early winter in South Africa (April – June). Its bright yellow flower heads illuminate the winter landscape where it is particularly effective in dense plantings. Seed is easy to germinate, which may be enhanced by smoke treatment. Soil – well drained neutral to acidic.

 

Figure 1: Metalasia aurea

Podalyria buxifolia – ‘box-leaf bush-sweetpea’
Podalyria buxifolia is another unheralded gem from the southern Cape region. It is new to horticulture, but we believe it has good potential and is an excellent plant for the gardener wanting to attract bees and butterflies to the garden. It has attractive, dark-green, glossy leaves and the most exquisite magenta, pea-like, scented flowers in summer. It is a spreading, well-branched, re-sprouting shrub growing to 1m high with a 2m spread. The leaves are simple, dark, glossygreen on top and have silky white hairs on the lower surfaces that produce a silvery sheen. It is easy to grow from seed which must be sown in the warm months. Soils should be well drained, and neutral to acidic. Treatment with hot water and a pre-emergence fungicide enhances germination. Flowering time is from August to April. Zone 8.

 

Figure 2 – Podalyria buxifolia

Sparmannia africana ‘Cape stock rose, wild stock rose, African hemp, ‘Cape hollyhock’ Sparmannia africana is an attractive, much branched, bushy, soft-wooded evergreen shrub with a round growth habit usually 4m tall but may grow up to 8m. The branches are soft, leaves are large, heart-shaped with toothed margins. The flowers are white with a mass of yellow and red-purple stamens in the centre. Much of the attraction of this flower is in the puff of brightly bicoloured stamens. The sterile outer stamens are yellow with purple tips while the inner ones, stained reddish-purple with purple tips, are fertile. Flowering occurs from mid-winter into early summer (June to November). Sparmannia africana is an easy-to-grow large shrub for shade or full sun.

 

 

Figure 3 – Sparmannia africana Zone 10.

Phylica pubescens ‘featherhead’

An exquisitely attractive fynbos shrub densely covered with luminous, hairy leaves where each hair seems to gather the sunlight and make it glow. Early morning or late afternoon sun shining behind the featherhead bush makes all other plants dull by comparison. The branches of this erect, 1.2-2m tall bush are clothed with narrow, hair-covered leaves, which become crowded at the branch tips. Each branch ends in a lovely, compressed flowerhead, comprising rings of feathery bracts amongst which the tiny flowers nestle. They flower in autumn and winter (May to August). Seeds are easy to germinate when treated with hot water and a pre-emergence fungicide. Soils must be well drained and acidic. Zone 8.

 

Figure 4 – Phylica pubescence Turraea obtusifolia ‘Small honeysuckle’

Turraea obtusifolia is an often-overlooked, beautiful, ornamental shrub with glossy dark green foliage displaying masses of showy white flowers in summer and decorative orange-red fruits in late summer to winter. The flowers are fragrant at night and are pollinated by moths. This plant does best when planted in a warm position against a wall. Sow Spring. Zone 10.

Phylica litoralis
Compact rounded shrub to 1m with dense arrangement of dark green leaves and attractive clusters of white flowers forming numerous button-like flower heads that cover the plant. Grows in full sun along the southern Cape coast and is an ideal coastal plant being resilient against the desiccating effects of salt-laden winds. Suitable filler in gardens near the coast or warm, sunny gardens. Germinate readily when pre-treated with hot water. Sow Spring. Zone 9

Erica verticillata (Extinct in the Wild)
This exquisite Erica has been the subject of much conservation attention in South Africa and at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. From being thought extinct in the early 1980s, it has resurfaced in several places around the world through the efforts of the British Heather Society, Kew RBG, private growers and famously from the Belvedere Palace collections in Vienna where it has been growing.

 

Figure 5 – Anthony Hitchcock with the magnificent Erica verticillata which has been restored to Rondevlei Nature Reserve

Erica verticillata is a handsome, strong growing species averaging between 1.5 and 2m in height, but specimens can grow up to 3m tall. It produces beautiful pink, tubular flowers arranged in neat whorls. Peak flowering is from January to March, but it is known to flower intermittently throughout the year. Nine distinct forms of this species have been discovered in collections around the world.For further information see: http://pza.sanbi.org/erica-verticillata and author with species in picture above. Please request as seed is limited due to poor seed set probably resulting from long-time isolation in cultivation. Seed produced germinates well when smoke treated. Seed supplied is open pollinated and therefore may yield a mixture of the forms. Sow Autumn. Zone 8.

Other exciting seeds you might like to try:

NB. Instructions to sow in autumn refer to South African winter rainfall conditions, however on other areas we recommend sowing at the beginning of the growing season.

 

Happy Growing

Ondine and the Silverhill Team