From The Archives – Elsie Esterhuizen by Rod Saunders

Elsie Esterhuysen was born Observatory Cape Town on 11th April 1912.  Her father was Johannes Petrus Leroux Esterhuysen and he was Afrikaans speaking. Her mother was Florence Ethel Larken and she was English speaking.

Elsie, as far as is known, never spoke Afrikaans. English was her language despite the Afrikaans name.  Her father studied law at Stellenbosch and worked at the Master’s office at the Supreme Court in Cape Town. He was transferred to Windhoek, but her mother didn’t like the climate and he retired early.

Elsie attended Wynberg Girl’s high school in Cape Town, and after matriculating, she proceeded to UCT where she graduated with an MA degree in Botany in 1933.  The subject of her thesis was “The Anatomy of Myrothamnus flabellifolius”. It was obvious that anatomy held little attraction for her, and that field work was her abiding interest.  She had a brief period of employment as a clerk in the Education Dept.  Then she was awarded the Solly scholarship at Kirstenbosch in 1935.  There she made a detailed study of the fynbos regeneration after the felling of a 50 year old Pinus pinaster plantation.

In this same year, Elsie joined the Mt Club of SA (MCSA) and she remained a member until her death in 2006.  This membership was vital to her collecting activities.

Elsie had long wanted to be part of Dr Pole-Evans survey group in the Dept of Agriculture but was turned down merely because she was a woman.  It was felt that women were not strong enough to undertake the strenuous field work.  One of her classmates at UCT, John Ackocks, was accepted and went on to produce the famous Veld Types of South Africa.

In 1936 at the height of the Great Depression, Elsie accepted a position with Maria Wellamn, the Director of the McGregor Museum, in Kimberley.  At this time, she was undertaking a survey of the flora of Griqualand West.  After 2 years in Kimberley, Elsie returned to Cape Town in 1938 and joined the Bolus Herbarium, under Dr Louisa Bolus.  Her former Professors, Prof Robert Adamson and Prof Harold Compton (Harold Compton was a member of the MCSA since 1919) knew of her passion for mountains and suggested that she explore and document the high altitude flora of the Cape Mountains as Herbarium records were sparse or lacking.  Thus began her life work for the next 60 years during which time she made over 37 000 herbarium collections, the bulk of them collected from over 1000m in altitude.

The Mountain Club of South Africa connection.

During her stay in Kimberley, Maria Wellamn encouraged Elsie to get her driver’s license so that she could collect further afield.  All went well until one day, Elsie stalled the car on a railway crossing. She never drove again and preferred a bicycle as a means of transport.  The MCSA provided the means for Elsie to visit the mountains.

Seeing that Elsie did not drive and was beholden to others for motorized transport, the MCSA members weekly meets provided a means for Elsie to reach the highest peaks in the Western Cape.  She regularly attended July Camps in the Drakensberg and collected extensively there.  Many plants described by Hilliard and Burtt, experts on the Drakensberg flora, bear her collecting details.

 

 

Galpin 15 000
Compton 35 000 (8 000 in Swaziland)
Acocks 28 000
Drege 9 500
Ted Oliver 10 500 mainly Ericas
Mogg 40 000 throughout southern Africa
Elsie Esterhuysen 37 000

 

Elsie did not collect plants randomly. She would do extensive research on a family of plants, see where the gaps were and then collect extensively within that family. Some noteworthy examples were Rutaceae, Restios and Grasses, Ericaceae.  Her collecting activities were vital to the whole herbarium – she laid the grounds for Ted Oliver to do his work on Ericas and for Peter Linder for his work on restios and grasses.

From the Archives – Pollination, Collection of Bulb seed.

By Rod and Rachel Saunders

The life of South African bulbs and corms is finite, so it is important to hand pollinate this season’s flowers to obtain seed for re-sowing the following season.  This is particularly important for species of Sparaxis and Gladiolus which are quite capable of flowering themselves to death.  After one has pollinated the flowers and the seeds have set and ripened, the next step is to harvest the seeds and store it until the correct season for sowing.

In Iridaceae, most seeds take about 6 weeks to ripen, with some exceptions eg Watsonias which take longer and some Moraea species which are ripe in 4 weeks.  Ornithogalum, Albuca and Bulbinella seed is ripe about a month after flowering.  As the capsules ripen they will change colour slightly, take on a shrivelled appearance and splits will appear in the capsules at the tips.  At this stage the capsules may be harvested.  Under certain conditions green spikes may be harvested and ripened in a jar of water to which a pinch or two of sugar has been added.  As it is difficult to estimate the degree of ripeness of the seeds, I do not recommend this method unless one is desperate!  If the seed is well formed in the capsules and the endosperm is solid and no longer milky then it is reasonably successful.  Having said this, some seeds such as those of Lachenalias, with L. rubida a good example, have a long after-ripening period.  The flowering stem dies off soon after seed set, and the whole spike separates from the bulb.  In cases such as this, the spike with the green capsules can be collected, placed in a paper bag and left in a cool place to ripen.

Seed is very nutritious and is host to a number of parasites.  It is therefore very important to treat the seed with an insecticide immediately it has been harvested.  I always use Karbadust – it is freely available from nurseries and is relatively non-toxic to warm blooded animals.  Do not use any product containing Gamma BHC as this will inhibit seed germination.  The seed should be placed in a paper bag, Karbadust added, and the bag should be well shaken to ensure good coverage of the seeds.  On sowing the seeds, the excess dust can be sieved off.

Seed longevity varies from genus to genus, and it can be increased by storing the seeds at 4°C.  If stored at room temperature, most Irid seeds will germinate well for up to 2 years, for Gladioli and some Moraeas, it is less.  As a rule, their viability is short.  I have sown some 10 year old Dierama seed and obtained germination, but this is an exception.  Agapanthus seeds are notoriously short-lived (about 3 to 6 months) and should be stored in a refrigerator.  A cool dry place should be used for seed storage, away from light – better still, if you have the space, use a fridge.

In closing I have to stress how important hand pollination and seed collection is if you want to maintain the integrity of your bulb collection.

From The Archives – Seed Collecting in Africa

By Rod and Rachel Saunders

“What a wonderful job and what a wonderful life” is the reaction of most people when we tell them what we do.  And yes, sometimes it is, but, like all jobs, sometimes it isn’t!  Our job takes us all over Southern Africa from the southern most tip near Cape Town, to the north of Zambia, about 4 000km away; from the Atlantic Ocean in the west of Namibia to the Indian Ocean in the east.  We see deserts, grasslands and lush forests; rain, snow and boiling heat; mountains and rolling plains.  We also see environmental destruction on a massive scale, varying from pine and eucalyptus plantations to urban sprawl, golf estates, mining operations and agriculture such as wheatlands and vineyards.

To put it in a nutshell, what our job involves is travelling through the country collecting seeds from as many species as possible on the way.  We travel in a 4 wheel drive pick-up Landcruiser, and we walk as much as we can.  We have a small fridge in our car to keep the beers cold, and at night we sleep in a roof-top tent which keeps us away from the dust and dirt and animals on the ground.  We collect seeds in friend’s gardens, on road verges, on farms and in forests, on the sea-shore and high in the mountains.  And obviously, during our travels, we have many experiences, some wonderful, and some not so wonderful!

Firstly, the weather.  Living in a tent, walking in the mountains and collecting seeds, we are 100% exposed to whatever weather conditions the gods throw at us.  We have had several not to be recommended experiences in the mountains while walking, most of them involving rain and snow.  Once in the Drakensberg we spent the night in a cave high in the mountains close to the Lesotho border.  In the morning we set off in beautiful clear weather, sun shining warmly down and a gentle breeze.  As we walked into Lesotho over the collapsed border fence, for some reason I tied a small piece of plastic to the fence above the cave.  We walked all morning collecting seeds and had lunch near a clear and lovely stream.  Early in the afternoon we noticed some small clouds, which rapidly grew into bigger clouds and half an hour later we were enveloped in thick mist.  By then we had walked several kilometers, and we suddenly realized that we had to find one small cave in a large white landscape!  We kept our heads, turned in the direction that we thought we should be going and tried to walk in as straight a line as possible towards the escarpment. After 45 minutes or so, we hit the border fence, so our straight line was pretty good!  Keeping the fence on our left, we walked up hills and down valleys until we finally saw our little piece of plastic, waving in the breeze! With great relief we climbed over the fence, found the cave and had a hot cup of tea!  The next morning we woke up to thick snow on all the surrounding high peaks – a beautiful sight.

On another occasion we were walking in the Chimanimani Mountains in eastern Zimbabwe in winter, the dry season.  During the night, to our surprise, we heard the sound of rain on our tent.  By morning, our tent was floating and our flat plain had turned into a shallow lake!  We packed up in the rain and decided to head for our car which was parked at the base of the mountain, a day’s walk away.  We were unfortunately on the wrong side of a major river which drains the mountains, and we soon found that we couldn’t cross the river which was now in flood.  Our only option was to stay on our side of the river and to walk to a large and comfortable cave that we knew of 2 or 3 hours away.  So off we went, but our memories of the route were not too accurate and we had forgotten that we had to cross 3 side rivers, which of course were also in flood!  With our packs on our heads and clutching onto half submerged trees, we managed to get across them and by lunch time we reached the cave.  By then our clothes were soaked but our warm sleeping bags were dry, so we had lunch huddled in our bags at the back of the cave, watching the rain pouring down.  Later in the afternoon the rain stopped and a rather watery sun emerged from the clouds.  “By morning the river should be down and we will be able to cross easily” said Rod, so we spent the afternoon collecting wet seed into paper bags.  However, as the sun set, the clouds rolled back in and as we ate our rather meager supper, down poured the rain again!  By morning we felt desperate – our food was running out, the rain was still bucketing down, and a brief excursion to our little nearby stream showed us a raging torrent!  Clearly the main river would still be uncrossable.  Finally by lunch time the rain stopped and in the late afternoon we decided to pack up and walk as far as we could on our side of the river, and then try to cross.  So off we went.  Shortly before darkness fell we found a spot where the river narrowed with a large rock on our side.  Rod threw his rucksack across the river and then leapt after it, thankfully getting across.  After throwing my pack towards Rod, I jumped and was hauled across by my ski pole walking stick, landing with one foot in the river.  I burst into tears with relief, and after sorting ourselves out, we walked until we found a level spot where we put up the tent and ate our last slice of bread for dinner!

Normally however, we curse the heat far more than the cold and rain, and we more often collapse exhausted and hot into cold mountain pools to seek relief.  Often while driving through the Karoo or Namaqualand, we look for farm dams or reservoirs, and leap in, sometimes clothes and all to cool off.

Obviously the weather also has a huge effect on the seeds that we are collecting.  If it has been too dry, we frequently find no seed at all – the flowers simply fade away, setting no seed.  If it is too cold and wet, the same may occur as most pollinators need temperatures of at least 16 C to fly.  Cold weather also affects the time seeds take to ripen – most Irid seeds normally ripen in 6 weeks, but cold weather can retard this to as long as 8 weeks.  Similarly hot dry weather can shorten ripening to 5 or even 4 weeks.  This results in our most frequent lament “green or gone!”.  Particularly annoying when one has traveled 1000km to collect some special seed, to find one missed it by a week!  If we find slightly green seed, it can often be ripened in jars of water which are precariously arranged in the back of our vehicle, but there is nothing one can do about “gone” seed.

Secondly, the actual process of seed collecting can also be “hazardous”.  Like the day we were collecting seed of Rhus pendulina, a large tree frequently used as a street tree in low rainfall towns.  We collected the seed into an upturned umbrella which is efficient and very quick, and transferred it into a paper bag.  We then went into the local shop to buy some lunch, and drove on our way.  About 10km further on, Rod suddenly shrieked “There’s something in my beard. STOP!!”  I hurriedly stopped, peered into his beard, and burst out laughing – it was a baby chameleon!  It had obviously fallen out of the tree into his beard while we were collecting the Rhus seeds.  We wondered how many people in the shop had noticed, but its camouflage was perfect!

Another amusing encounter with chameleons was on a cold winter’s day in Johannesburg.  We were collecting Combretum seeds – these seeds hang in clusters and are easy to collect in great handfuls.  As I grabbed a bundle of seeds, I felt a cold and almost clammy thing in my hand, and dropped it with a scream.  We dug around in the seeds to see what it was and found a tiny chameleon in hibernation in the middle of the seed cluster!  Rod make some remark about feeble hysterical women, but a minute or two later he also let out a scream – he had found one too!

Another day was potentially more disastrous.  Rod went wandering off while I packed up the lunch, and suddenly he came running back, waving his arms and shouting “Get into the car” – so I did!  He opened the door and leapt in, together with a large number of bees, buzzing angrily around his head.  He had unfortunately chosen to have a pee on top of a bee nest, in the ground under some grass!  They had taken exception to this, and had come out fighting!  African bees have a well deserved reputation for being fierce, and fierce they were.  Rod drove off rapidly and opened all the windows trying to shoo the bees out. He got stung about 10 times, but I am allergic to bee stings, so my efforts at bee removal were frantic!  We stopped a short distance down the road to clear the car of the last stragglers and I realized that I had a bee under my shirt.  Without thinking I desperately tore my shirt off, to the amazement of all the motorists on the busy highway, but I didn’t get stung!

Travelling as we do in some very out-of-the-way places, we often encounter wild life of varying sorts.  One day in Namibia we were lucky to see a herd of gemsbok, 2 jackals and a pair of honey badgers early one morning in the middle of the Namib Desert.  In the Drakensberg we were woken up one night by noises around our tent, and we realized that something was eating our ripening seeds propped up in their jars of water.  We leapt up shouting and whatever it was ran off.  We went back to sleep muttering about “damn donkeys, the scourge of Africa”.  Next morning we peered out of the tent to find a herd of Eland, looking longingly at our Agapanthus and Galtonia  seed spikes which were now safely out of reach.  Not donkeys at all!

And of course we quite often see snakes – sometimes pythons or mambas that reach right across the road, but more often fat lazy puff adders, very poisonous snakes which often bite when walked on.  They love the warmth of the road, and because most people run over them deliberately if they see them, we always stop to move them from danger.  We carry a long handled pole pruner with us, and it is very useful for prodding snakes out of the road!

Probably our funniest encounter with wild life was the day we met an ostrich!  We were walking in a nature reserve in Swaziland and suddenly noticed that we were being followed by an ostrich.  It was right behind us, and each time we stopped to look at a plant, it stopped too, and scratched around in the soil, looking for insects to eat.  We walked about 6 or 7 km, with our ostrich accompanying us all the way.  We came round a corner and almost fell over a litter of warthog babies which seemed to have lost their mum.  They ran towards us, squealing madly, and we nearly had a fit – warthog mothers are extremely fierce and charge without hesitating, and we didn’t really want to meet mum!  We turned round and fled, and our ostrich fled with us – she obviously didn’t want to meet mum either!  All 3 of us walked back to the camp site for supper – a barbecue for us and bread for the ostrich!

We do quite often have problems with donkeys, cattle and sheep, particularly with bulb seeds.  Normally each year we try to visit an area in flower, and then we go back 5 to 7 weeks later for seed.  And frequently during our absence, the farmer puts his stock into the field, and that’s the end of our seeds.  Particularly Gladiolus spikes and almost always, it is a rare Gladiolus that grows a long way from home!

Another strange problem we have had was with mice.  Quite a few of the seeds that we collect are expelled from their seed capsules by an explosive or extrusion mechanism.  Explosive capsules include the Rutaceae such as Agathosmas and Coleonemas, and those that are pushed out or simply fall out include Proteaceae such as Paranomus and Serruria, and Irids such as Nivenias.  The simplest method of collecting these seeds is to either envelop the entire plant in a net made of net-curtain material, or to cover the flower head with a stocking tied around the base.  One hot summer’s day we spent a couple of  hours at a population of Serruria tying stockings onto old flower heads with string.  About a month later we returned to the site to see if the seeds had been released yet, and found that they had.  So we began removing the stockings, untying them carefully over a paper bag to catch any seeds that fell out. As Rod clutched a stocking prior to untying the string, it wriggled!  He jumped backwards in fright and then burst out laughing as a mouse peered out of a hole, whiskers bristling!  Protea seeds are oily and very nutritious, and a population of lucky mice had discovered our bags full of seeds.  Needless to say, we got no Serruria seeds that year!

However, despite all the hazards and trials and tribulations, we do have some good days too.  Those early spring days in the Cape mountains when the weather is warm but not too hot, the ground is wet from the previous day’s rain and the flowers are magnificent.  Or summer days in the rolling foothills of the Drakensberg mountains in undisturbed high altitude grasslands.  This is the habitat for sheets of Kniphofias, hundreds of species of ground orchids, Agapanthus and Eucomis in the gullies and Lammergeier eagles soaring above.  Or if seed collecting becomes too much on wet rainy days or on hot summer days, we can always go wine tasting at one of the    wineries in the SW Cape, or head for the beach!  Then we agree with all those people who think we have a wonderful life!

Having collected all our seeds  in various parts of South Africa, the cleaning and processing has to begin.  In fact, it begins even before we get home.

The first processing begins the same evening as the collection was made.  All the seed packets are fully labelled – a date of collection, a name of some sort (often a tentative guess!), and locality details.  Sometimes there may also be a reference to a digital photograph number on the packet, or when we really couldn’t identify the species, a reference to a herbarium sheet that we made of the plant.  In the car we carry as many books as we can – usually 8 or 10 selected according to our itinerary and the time of year.  In July (mid-winter) we collect mainly tree seeds in the summer rainfall areas of the country, and there are virtually no bulbous plants in flower, so we will take tree and shrub books and no bulb books.  In August and September we need books on Namaqualand annuals, bulbs, Ericas, shrubs and trees, and more.  The books most frequently used are those with good keys and preferably illustrations of some sort such as Field Guides and specialised books on genera such as Gladiolus, Ixia, Kniphofia etc.  However we also often use books such as “Cape Plants” by Peter Goldblatt and John Manning which is simply a list of all the species in the Cape Floral Kingdom, with basic keys and basic descriptions.  Whichever books we have with us, we can be sure that there is at least one that would have been more useful which is sitting on the shelf at home!

On our travels we carry a set of laboratory sieves in one of the crates in the car, and if the seed is dry, we sieve it to get rid of unwanted bulk, and also to get rid of some of the insects which are lurking in the seed capsules.  Kniphofias and Aloes are particularly bad in this respect – they are obviously very nutritious and the shape of the seed capsules is just right for insects of all sorts to hide in.  The seeds are then dusted with a relatively mild insecticide to prevent further insect damage.

Tree seed poses particular problems of bulk as it often has pods or other bulky capsules which need to be crushed or split to release the seeds.  Sometimes all that is required to open a pod, especially Bauhinias, is warm air circulating around them.  We place the un-open pods in sacks on the roof of the car and leave them there for a day or two as we travel. As the pods split they often go off with a bang like a pistol shot which is sometimes loud enough to wake us at night!  Others, such as Acacia pods, can be split by hand, and this is done on the journey by whoever is not driving.  However, some Acacia pods are indehiscent and the seed is only released when the pod is eaten by game or livestock.  The pods have a sweetish smell and are normally brittle and hard, and they are eagerly sought out by game.  To reduce the bulk of these, we place the pods in sacks and jump up and down on them, thereby crushing the capsules and releasing the seed.  The resulting debris is sieved and the seeds retained.  In this way, 30 – 40kg of raw material is reduced to a few hundred grams of clean seed.

Fleshy seed is usually cleaned the same day if water is available. If not, then it is packed into a leak proof container on the roof of the car where it cannot contaminate other dry seed.  We carry a bucket and a large basin with us, so that seeds can be cleaned in rivers when available, or under taps in camp sites.

On the whole, bulbous plant seed is fairly simple – it is not normally too bulky, so requires a minimal amount of pre-cleaning. It is simply labelled and treated with insecticide, and put away.

And where does all this seed fit?  When we pack our car, most things are packed into stackable plastic crates – food, rucksacks, boots, books etc. There are also many empty crates, both on the roof of the car and in the back.  The seeds in their brown paper packets, are sealed with sticky tape, and are packed into these crates. The crates have holes in the sides and bottoms, so they allow good air circulation.  This is important as there is almost always residual moisture in the seeds, and we certainly don’t want to arrive home with moist and mouldy seeds.

On arriving home, the seed is unpacked and systematically sorted.  First to be cleaned is recalcitrant and perishable seed, so this is all packed into 1 crate.  Next in line is all the fleshy seed which must be cleaned before it ferments and gets too disagreeable!  Then the seeds with the most insect pests – Irids and other bulbous plant seeds, Aloes, Acacias and other legumes.  The harder more “insect resistant” seeds are left until the end, as are the succulents such as mesems, and the host of unidentified nightmares!

The term “recalcitrant” is used to describe a type of seed that does not conform to normality.  These seeds have no dormancy mechanism and regardless of conditions, they will germinate immediately on being separated from the parent plant.  Most of the South African amaryllids (except Cyrtanthus) fall into this category (including Nerines, Brunsvigias, Crinums etc).  If we don’t have a customer for these seeds immediately, we store them at 4°C to slow their germination, often in damp vermiculite to prevent them from drying out.  If we are on a long trip, we usually send these seeds home by post and they are cleaned by our staff at work.

Fleshy seeds are steeped in water overnight, and the flesh is then pulverized so that it floats away with the water while the heavier seeds sink to the bottom of the bucket.  Often several changes of water are required before the flesh is finally removed.  Some seeds such as those of Sclerocarya birrea (marula, a large tree with edible fruit) have flesh which adheres firmly to the seed and it cannot be removed easily.  Either these seeds are left in a plastic bag in the sun for several days until the flesh begins to ferment and soften, or they are cleaned in a cement mixer.  Several kilograms of seed are placed in the cement mixer together with a quantity of stone chips, and this is rotated for several hours until all the flesh has been ground off. The seed is then washed and dried.

Legume seed is usually easy to clean, but because it is so palatable to insects, it needs to be processed quickly before it is all eaten.  For the same reason, bulbous plant seeds also need to be processed quickly.  These all follow the same routine – dry the capsules well, break them up and sieve out the seed.  All the small bits and pieces which go through the sieve with the seeds are winnowed off by blowing. Rod, who cleans most of the seed, wanders round the garden while doing this, resulting in all sorts of strange plants coming up in odd spots!  Although the seeds are heavier than the chaff, invariably some seeds blow off with the rubbish.  Gladiolus seeds differ a bit in that they are firmly attached to the capsules.  They are cleaned by drying them thoroughly so that the capsules open fully and expose the seeds, and then shaking the capsules in a bucket to release the seeds.

The cleaned seeds are usually put into new paper bags or packets, labelled carefully, treated with an insecticide if necessary, and are then fumigated with Phostoxin for 5 days to kill any insects that hatch after cleaning and any larvae still lurking amongst the seeds.

After 5 days, the seeds are moved to our seed room and are catalogued, all collecting information is recorded, and they are put away.  The seed room itself is regularly fumigated with a pyrethroid to deal with any insects that have come in from outside.  In the past we have had some really spectacular outbreaks of seed parasites, invariably in the bulb and Aloe seeds.  It is a seed merchant’s worst nightmare finding the seed room full of moths and beetles, and knowing that they have hatched somewhere amongst all the seed packets, or opening a packet of precious seed that took hours to collect, and finding that the seeds are full of holes!

If a plant has not been identified in the field, we will try to find a name at home where we have an extensive library and can key it out using one of the taxonomic monographs.  If we still can’t get a name, we will take it up to the Compton Herbarium at Kirstenbosch and enlist the aid of a friendly botanist.  We are surprised how often we come up with a plant that is undescribed – sometimes it has been collected previously but still has no name, and sometimes it has never been collected before.  So far the list includes an Ixia, a Romulea, 2 Babianas and a Hesperantha that had not been seen for over 100 years. Often these discoveries occur because we are in the right place at the right time, and the right time is often an unusual time of year when botanists are not often in the field.  The Romulea was discovered because we could not tell the difference between 2 yellow flowered species growing side by side.  The only way we could distinguish between them was by the corm shape, and on digging up a corm of the new species, we realised that we had never seen anything like it before. The new species was named Romulea discifera, for the strange corm.  “There is always something new out of Africa”!!

Do we ever make mistakes? No never!  Well, hardly ever!  Well, sometimes!  Mistakes can occur because of the lack of flowers when one collects the seeds, so we are not always one hundred percent sure that the species we saw in flower is the same as the one whose seed we are collecting.  Or if we are dealing with a large and complex genus, we sometimes simply make a mistake using the key.  But sometimes the mistakes come about due to bad labelling!  If Rod has been cleaning many Gladiolus species, and then changes to Romuleas, we will sometimes land up with strange species such as Gladiolus amoena, or Romulea dalenii – luckily these mistakes are usually picked up and rectified by the person putting the seed away, or Rachel when she enters the details on the computer.

And finally, how are all the species recorded?  All the species that we collect are entered onto a database (Microsoft Access), with the family, genus and species, a description of the plant, and whether it is a bulbous plant, a succulent or a tree.  If the seeds were purchased from someone, the price paid and the source is also included.  This database is linked to a collecting list which has details on where we collected each species.  In the past before we had a GPS, these collecting localities were quite complex – “15km past the T junction on the P1254 road between X and Y, under the tree on the left hand side”!  The use of a GPS has obviously revolutionized this, and our collecting details are now far more boring – a plain “GPS 125”!  We are also attempting to get a photograph of as many species as possible, and this is also entered onto the database.  Digital photography is wonderful, but it has created a huge amount of work – on returning home all the images are downloaded, and then the identifying and labelling begins.  We are all guilty of the same problem I am sure – because it is so cheap and simple to take multiple pictures of the same plant, we sometimes have 10 or 20 images of one species to sort through, and trying to decide which image is the best sometimes takes hours!  The pictures are linked to the database, so if we have a species in stock and it reflects on the website, then there is a picture of it.  As our catalogue often has 2000 species listed on it, we still have many photographs to take.

 

All in all, seed collecting is an extremely laborious task, but it affords us a good livelihood and a wonderful lifestyle.

Newsletter 6: November 2022

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.

Namibian Grass

 

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.

Anthony cleaning seed

Anthony inspecting seed

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.

Pincushion seed eaten by squirrels

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.

Wendy Hitchcock

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

Farewell tea for Julia, Kirstin and Jenny (who couldn’t be with us)

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.

Regina collecting seeds and lunch stop with Dorothy

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.

 

Newsletter 5: August 2021

Newsletter August 2021

A big HELLO to our longstanding and new customers!

June/July has seen some upheaval and new beginnings.

With the “New Normal” in full swing we decided it would make sense for us to move home and business – with the thought of moving Silverhill into our home.

After one visit to the property, which had been on the market for 5 months, it just “felt right”. We signed the papers in March and moved in June.  After a month to settle our 5 cats, 3 dogs, 7 Koi and 4 humans, we moved the business on the 1st of July.

With much shuffling of shelves and changing of minds – Kirstin decided we should move a bookshelf after it was packed and sorted – we got ourselves settled and it is a lovely space! In the evening, while I am on the computer and for as long as I am at my desk, I have the cats on my lap and the dogs next to me keeping me company.

Silverhill is having to fit into a smaller office but we’re getting used to working closer together. We were very spoilt in our “mini-factory” with lots of space.   All in one office space, we have a partitioned and airconditioned cold-room for our precious seeds (with a most wonderful door that an incredibly talented Pat painted for us (see image below), seed packers, seed cleaners and admin ladies in the rest of the space.

The books…have been a little bit of a headache.  I can see Francis, who worked at Silverhill for many years and a qualified librarian, rolling her eyes VERY badly (she used to sing the alphabet song to me regularly, as my alphabet was not always “on point”). We’ve arranged them now by title and have a printed booklist by author, so that the website catalogue and their position on the shelves are in sync. If you are in the area, please do pop in and have a look.

Postage

To all our customers…. THANK YOU for your understanding and patience!

In some cases, it has taken 3 months of calls to couriers, check-ins with post office employees and countless emails to customs and department officials to follow up on and track orders to ensure that they get to you – patiently waiting for your seeds and your fingers, itching to plant!

Website

While it is still an ever-evolving work in progress, we are enormously proud of our website! We will soon start getting down to adding some germinating hints as well as more pictures.  Thank you again for being so patient and in most cases, giving us valuable feedback so that we can improve it.

Silverhill Seeds is a family business with you, our customers, pivotal members of our family! To that end, we have strived to maintain a “friendly feel/tone” both at our physical office and on the website. We urge you to feel free to pop in or drop us an email anytime you need seed related support – or even just to chat or send us pictures of how your seeds are doing. We will always do our best to help you!  Julia has grown many of the Fynbos species for restoration projects all over the City of Cape Town and has some amazing hints up her sleeve.

 

ANNOUNCEMENT!

Rod and Rachel’s Field Guide to the Galdioli of South Africa is at the printer and will be available at the end of August! Go onto our website and pre-order your copy.

Fiona Ross, who wrote the book using Rod and Rachel’s notes and many photographs, did the most incredible job.  It really is a fantastic publication! How she chose a few pictures from the many they took; I still cannot comprehend.  The price will be in the region of R420/USD29/£21 for the book (excluding P&P or VAT for South Africans).

The website has been updated: Find out more about the Saunders Field Guide to Gladiolus here: https://www.saundersgladiolusguide.com/

A coveted record of the life’s work of a couple who contributed to botany and horticulture in South Africa; it will be treasured by anyone with an interest in these magnificent flowers.

Saunders’ Field Guide to Gladioli of South Africa is the first of its kind to offer a complete photographic record of the 166 species that occur in the region. Posthumously completed, this book is the culmination of the Saunders’ long search to find and photograph every known species of Gladiolus in South Africa.

Staff Matters

Our Staff compliment has not changed since the last Newsletter.

Kirstin has finished 8 months of building. What a huge relief!  Pat has just had a hip replacement (COVID allowing).  Jenny is still frantically gardening and planting.  Julia is juggling her children’s schooling, which is on today and not tomorrow, 2 weeks holiday…no 3 weeks holiday – due to COVID.  Dorothy and Regina are still our super seed sorters and cleaners!  Thomas had to use his flight to Germany, so has gone to visit family and friends. After a 2-week quarantine period he is eventually out and about.

Data Protection

From 1 July 2021, the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) came into effect in South Africa. The law is designed to protect how your data is used, stored, and processed. With the launch of our new website, Silverhill is striving to become more current, innovative, and connected but we take your privacy and personal information very seriously.

To this end and in compliance with the requirements of the above Act, if you would like to keep receiving our emails and newsletters via Mailchimp, then you do not need to take any action at all. If you would like to stop receiving our newsletters, emails etc. via Mailchimp, please unsubscribe at the bottom of the Mailchimp email.  We will keep you posted as to the development of our new Privacy Policy.

SOWING SEASON IS UPON US

It will soon be SPRING in the southern hemisphere and AUTUMN in the northern hemisphere – a short window (3 months) but both PEAK sowing seasons on the horticultural calendar. Why? Spring and Autumn offer unique growing conditions.  Some seeds need a stark temperature change over a 24-hour period (between 10 – 15°C), along with the following dry/hot and cold/wet to germinate and establish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Newsletter 4: February 2021

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”                                               Rather good camping spot!

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”

Newsletter 3: July 2019

July 2019

By: Anthony Hitchcock

Rod and Anthony Hitchcock confer on this minature form of Protea repens

Dear Silverhill customers

February 2018 saw a great tragedy with the loss of Rod and Rachel Saunders to senseless murder. Their contribution and legacy to South African horticulture and botany is immeasurable. At the time of their deaths Rachel was on the cusp of completing her book on the Gladioli of South Africa. In documenting the genus for this monumental work they showed great dedication and determination to research, locate and record all the Gladioli on the subcontinent. Many a time they returned to localities again and again to try to find that elusive species. Far and wide, up to the top of the Drakensberg and other remote places in search of Gladioli species in flower. Rachel told me in early 2018 that she need only find and photograph one more species to have recorded them all. This was the culmination of a great adventure they undertook from the mid 1990s to collect as many South African plant species for their business and to introduce these to horticulturists, special collectors and researchers all around the world. Such was their success that they became legends in their time feted by the botanical and horticultural world. Their deaths therefore sent shockwaves around the world where they had many customers and friends. Questions were asked and assumptions were made that this would be the end of Silverhill Seeds.

We are happy to announce that Silverhill Seeds endures with Ondine Schrick having inherited the business. Ondine is a life long friend of Rod and Rachel and has been working at Silverhill since 1995. She has the years of experience and a dedicated team to keep the business going.

I have also joined the team to help fill the void left with the loss of Rod’s horticultural knowledge. I have been growing plants all my life and worked at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens for 34 years. In that time I established the commercial production nursery that led to increasing the availability of indigenous South African plants to the nursery industry from a handful to well over 1000 species. This, along with the opening of the retail sales outlet run in collaboration with the Kirstenbosch Branch of the Botanical Society led to changing the face of horticulture in South Africa. I became Kirstenbosch Nursery Manager in 2002 and was responsible for managing the collections and conservation programme until I took early retirement in March 2018.

It was at Kirstenbosch that I met Rod who was Nursery Manager from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s. We forged a close friendship with our love of mountaineering, botany and horticulture. Rod and Rachel, my wife Wendy and I shared and enjoyed many wonderful mountain trips over the years. Every trip was dominated by plants and botanizing. We found, identified, photographed, collected and grew many unusual species from high mountains and remote places. Rod and my penchant for making up plant names was tempered by our other great mountain companion and botanist, Prof. Peter Linder, who ensured that we were kept under some control. However, we managed to contribute to Peter’s botanical skills with much needed red wine produced when camping high in the mountains.

Rod with Peter Linder and Anthony Hitchcock on Nuweberg, south Cedarberg 2016

In late 2017 Rod and Rachel encouraged me to leave the increasingly stressful and politically charged Kirstenbosch work environment and come and work with them. I finally handed my notice to retire on the 16th February 2018 and immediately sent a whatsapp message to Rachel. Sadly, it was too late for her to receive it!

The next few months were traumatic for all close to Rod and Rachel, but we felt the need to keep their legacy going as we were sure they would have wanted us to. I do not think we will be able to emulate their tremendous achievements in harvesting as many plant species that they collected on their numerous trips, but we will do our best to provide the best service we can. Ondine has asked me to highlight some species that I think worth trying out. Please see selection below.

Selected species recommended to growers:

Lobelia valida ‘limestone lobelia’

Lobelia valida is a superb, fast growing herbaceous perennial up to 40cm high producing a breath-taking 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. Soils, well drained neutral to acidic.

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, glossy-green 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.

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 4 m 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. 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, 1.2-2 m 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.

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 Sp. 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

Anthony Hitchcock with the magnificent Erica verticillata (Extinct in the Wild) which has been restored to Rondevlei Nature Reserve

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 grown since the 1790s

Erica verticillata is a handsome, strong growing species averaging between 1.5 and 2m in height, but specimens can grow up to 3 m 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.

  1. 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.

 

Trees and Shrubs Agathosma ovata “Glentana” 70cm evergreen, very aromatic shrub, finely textured foliage, pink fl Sp. Sow Au. Zone 8.
Trees and Shrubs Duvernoia aconitiflora 3m compact shrub, intriguing white fl Su. Sow Sp. Zone 9.
Trees and Shrubs Mitriostigma axillare Compact shrub in forests, sweetly scented white flowers ageing to yellow Sp – Su, round orange fruits. Sow Sp. Zone 10.
Trees and Shrubs Oldenburgia grandis “Mountain hunch back”, to 5m bushy shrub/tree, dark thick corky bark, large stiff leathery leaves, individual purple thistle-like flowers in large flat heads, fruit small brown, linear, flattened nutlet. Sow Au. Zone 8
Trees and Shrubs Erica baueri subsp baueri “Bridal heath”, 1.5m, grey-green leaves, white/pink tubular flowers Spring-Autumn, cut fl. White & pinky-white forms also available.

The pink & white Still Bay form is the most attractive of this species due to its striking combination of white and deep pink flowers. Sow Au. Zone 8.

Trees and Shrubs Erica baueri subsp gouriquae 2.5m dense shrub, erect leaves, 5-10 pink fl in loose spikes, limestone species, but grows well in acidic soils. This is a magnificent, very showy Erica listed as Endangered due to habitat destruction and alien invasive plants. It has lovely, tubular, pink flowers that cover the entire plant creating a magnificent show. It is easy to grow from seed which germinate better when smoke treated. Sow Au. Zone 8.

 

Newsletter 2: May 2019

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 7th 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.

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

 

Newsletter 1: October 2018

October 2018

Dear Plant Lover

Dear Plant Lover

It is with a heavy heart I have to inform our customers and the plant world of Rod and Rachel’s passing (for those who do not already know).

Rod and Rachel were on a collecting trip in Northern Kwazulu Natal where they were in the “wrong place at the wrong time” and were brutally murdered.  The delay in letting the world know is that it was an international incident involving worldwide Police forces.

We hope Rod and Rachel are in a gentler place now – perhaps at the top of a mountain gazing down over unfolding hills and valleys, tranquil.  Work done, dreams and adventures fulfilled.  The world a richer place for their time spent here.

We are really going to miss their knowledge, expertise, the laughter we shared in our very close work environment.

Rod and Rachel left Silverhill Seeds to me and I would like to introduce myself….. Some of you may have already dealt with me.  My name is Ondine and I am a Horticulturist by trade and have worked for Rod and Rachel for 20 + years.  I am married with 2 children (19 and 17).  As a family we are very involved with Scouts and do lots of camping and hiking.

I have known them all my life (I was always a bit scared of Rod as a teenager)    When I was growing up my family were always in the mountains, that is where my folks met Rod and were later re-introduced to Rachel when she married Rod.  My mother knew Rachel as a young girl when she came to our family farm with her parents.

I started working for Rachel in 1998 in the seed room, counting seeds and was also given the job of packaging up seed ready for postage (as Frances did not like working with the tape dispenser).  After a year or two I moved between the seed room and the office to fill in when it was a bit chaotic.  I then moved into the office in 2012 and have been running the office since then while Rod and Rachel were on their long seed collecting trips.  I used to go collecting seed for a day here and there with Rod, when Rachel was otherwise occupied with office chores only she could do.

The business will continue running as it always has.  Anthony Hitchcock, a long‐time friend of Rod and Rachel, will be helping with the collecting of seed.  Some of the hard‐to‐find seed might take me a while to get my hands on, as I learn the locations and am able to go out and find them.  I do have to realise that it has taken them 25+ years to gain the knowledge they had to build Silverhill Seeds up to what it is today and I hope that you will all be patient with me while I continue to learn.

The office staff is just about the same – Cherrie is still in the Seedroom (21 years on and off, the last 6 more on than off!), Jenny has joined her there.  Euphonia and Darkie clean seeds for us.  The office is capably run by Kirstin (my sister) and Pat, with myself putting my “penny’s worth in.

Best Wishes

Ondine & the New Silverhill Team

From the Archives: Newsletter January 2016

January 2016

Dear Plant Lover

As usual, we will start our newsletter with a weather report!  At present, the entire Southern African sub-continent from Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique southwards, is in the grips of a most devastating drought accompanied by a heat wave.  All of this area, except for the SW Cape, is supposed to have summer rain and most areas have had no rain at all this summer. Zambia has no electricity as 90% of their power is hydro-electric and the Zambezi River is at the lowest level recorded. The Free State Province in SA has had not a drop of rain yet this summer and looks like the middle of winter with brown grass and dormant trees. The SW Cape receives winter rain, and our rainfall was about 1/3 of average in 2015. The last rain we had was in about October, and since then we have not had one drop. Most of the mountain streams are bone dry and we are experiencing day after day of sustained hot weather with temperatures in the upper thirties and low forties. On New Year’s day we were in the mountains at Bainskloof near Wellington and the temperature at 1pm was 46°C!

The weather office says this is the worst drought for over 20 years, and it is unusual in that it is covering the whole country, and is accompanied by very high temperatures. Apparently it is due to El Nino, and could extend into a 2nd year. Already we have a food crisis as there was a reduced wheat crop and the maize (corn) crop will be non-existent. Plus of course we have a water crisis as there is simply not enough stored water.

Our Gladiolus project mentioned in the last newsletter is continuing and we are now down to the last 7 species. We have spent the last two Christmases in the Drakensberg looking for Gladiolus – a very rare high altitude species only ever seen by a handful of people.  Christmas is normally a time when we stay at home as the roads and holiday resorts are full of holiday makers, enjoying the long summer holidays. We drove to the Drakensberg using all the back roads, many of them dirt, to try to avoid the main routes as South Africans are suicidal on the roads at this time of year.  We had booked a cave at 2200m where we intended spending 3 nights. The cave is about 10km from the car park, and of course, it is uphill all the way! Neither of us has carried a full rucksack for quite a few years as we normally go on long day walks carrying only protective clothing and lunch. By careful planning of both clothes and food, we kept our packs to a reasonable weight so the walk was pleasant, particularly as there were several large pools to swim in on the way. Once at the cave, we left our packs hidden, and walked to higher altitudes every day.

Needless to say, we did not find Gladiolus symonsii despite a systematic 3 day search for it in known and preferred habitats. However we did find 2 other Gladiolus species and many other plants in flower including Dierama dracomontana, Dianthus basuticus, several Glumicalyx species, Kniphofias, Agapanthus and Albucas. Due to the dry conditions in SA, the grass hadn’t grown as much as usual so the other flora benefited as there was no competition with grass. We had both forgotten how beautiful the ‘berg flora is and seeing the flowers with a backdrop of the majestic mountains cannot be described adequately.

One other Drakensberg endemic Gladiolus species that we still need to photograph is Gladious microcarpus which comes from the cliffs of the northern Drakensberg. We found a couple of plants in flower this December, but as fate would have it, a spell of cloudy misty overcast weather had moved in and it was so wet and damp that we could not photograph them! Several people had told us of large clumps of this species on the path up to Sentinel Peak. However in the winter of 2014 a devastating fire swept through the area (not a usual occurrence) and G. microcarpus has not been seen there since. We suspect that it is extremely fire sensitive and may now be extinct at this site.

Two other rare Gladiolus species that we photographed last year are Gladiolus antholyzoides and Gladiolus phoenix.  Gladiolus antholyzoides used to occur in large numbers around Sasolburg in the Free State south of Johannesburg, as well as around Pretoria. Due to urban encroachment and mining, most of its habitats are now gone, except for a few plants left in a wild area of a friend’s garden.  We have been communicating with him and he agreed to let us know when the plants were coming up to flower. Lo and behold, despite the drought, in November he phoned and told us to come quickly as several plants were about to flower. So we booked flights to Johannesburg for the following week, hired a car, drove to Sasolburg to photograph the Gladiolus, and flew back to Cape Town the same day. An expensive Gladiolus!!

 

Gladiolus phoenix is one of the species that we thought we would not find. It only flowers in the first year after fire, and it only occurs in the Bainskloof Mountains behind Wellington in the SW Cape. However, early in 2015 Bainskloof burned, so we vowed that from November onwards, we would do weekly searches of the area until we found it! We were so lucky – on our first search, there it was, right next to the road! What a gorgeous plant – a large tall branched inflorescence with masses of clear pink flowers all open at the same time. It is amazing that such a striking plant has only recently been described, and we assume that this is because of the position of the plant in relation to the road. The road is extremely narrow with a precipitous drop on one side, and most people would have their eyes glued to the road rather than looking for plants up the bank!

Sadly, Rachel’s mother died in April 2014 at the age of 96. Luckily for her, she was still at work one week, and died of heart failure the next week, so she was ill for only a couple of days. We still miss her and think of her often as she left many signs in our seed room and we come across her handwriting frequently! Ondine, Darkie and Cherrie still work every day and any of you who have phoned our office will probably have spoken to Ondine.

True to our promise, we have acquired another cat, a Somali who we named Abraham!  Perhaps we should have named him Ibrahim instead, taking his breed into consideration! He is a most affectionate cat and is spoiled rotten! Fortunately he seems to lack Nanuk’s wanderlust and spends most of his time in our garden (or so we hope!). Part of this newsletter was written with his help – he has jumped up onto the table and deposited himself onto the paper, knocked the pencil sharpener onto the floor, and is in the process of doing the same with the hand lens while dabbing at the pencil!

Since the last newsletter, some new books have been published and all of them are listed on our website.

  1. There is a new upgraded and enlarged version of the Namaqualand Wildflower Guide.
  2. Lapeirousias have not escaped the taxonomic whirlwind, and have been divided into 4 genera – read about it in “Systematics and Biology of Lapeirousia, Codonorhiza, Psilosiphon & Schizorhiza in southern Africa”.
  3. Jan Vloks admirable Field Guide “Plants of the Klein Karoo” has been re-printed and upgraded.
  4. Herbert Starcker, a superb photographer, has produced a photographic guide to all the South African orchids titled “Orchids of South Africa”.

We finally completed our house renovations which eventually included not only the kitchen and dining room, but also our bedroom, passage and book and wine room. We replaced all the floors in these rooms as well as other major and minor renovations, and the house looks beautiful. The next big job is to re-wire the house which still has some of the original wires from the 1930s! However, that job involves removing and replacing part of the roof, so will have to wait until we feel strong enough to tackle the disruption.

 

With best wishes

Rod and Rachel Saunders