In the June Newsletter, I wrote that we needed rain. From 1 June to 10 July 2025, 319mm was recorded at our house. This rain is most welcome! On the mountain behind our house, the Cordifolium flowers are just starting to flower, and it looks as if there will be a huge number of blooms this year. The first Leucospermum conocarpodendron (Kreupelhout) flowers are starting to appear. The restios are in full splendor and there is always a new Erica to admire and photograph. We are truly blessed to live in the richest floral kingdom in the world.
See photos of Erica Fascicularis (Sticky Heath or Tall Erica) below pictured yesterday on the mountain.
Overnight on 2 July and in the morning of 3 July 49mm of rain was recorded in less than ten hours. This resulted in isolated flooding and unfortunately the BotSoc bookshop bore the brunt of it. The small river adjacent to Leopard’s Kloof rarely ever flows very strongly but there was a reasonably strong flow that morning. The bridge near the electricity transformer was totally blocked with debris so that the water was not able to flow along its normal course and it took its own route down the perimeter fence of the Gardens along Broadwith Road, through the office area of SANBI and then straight to the bookshop. We were alerted by the Garden staff that the bookshop was being flooded. Paddy Dall and Janet Nel, the shop manager, arrived at about the same time at the shop to find a river of water 10-15cm high running through it. Paddy put out a plea for help on the volunteer BotSoc WhatsApp group and more than twelve volunteers arrived with mops, buckets and towels to help with the diversion of the water and the mopping up. Once we were able to open up under the bridge at the transformer, the water flow quickly subsided and the big mopping up operation could begin.
The photos below show how the volunteers rolled up their trousers and went about mopping up the flood waters. By lunchtime, the job was 90% completed. Fortunately, because all the book stands and everything else is either on castors or little pedestals we suffered very little damage. Fourteen wrapping sheets and a few baskets were destroyed by the floods – less than R1000 worth of damage.
The volunteers were magnificent. The speed with which they responded and the way they mucked in gave one a lump in the throat. They were all amazing!
NATIONAL BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA
On Saturday 19 July the Kogelberg Branch hosted the National BotSoc Pathfinder Convention which was a strategic planning session of the council and the chairmen and treasurers of the various branches. It was a combined in-person and virtual meeting. News of the outcome of the convention will follow.
HAROLD PORTER BOOK AND CRAFT SHOP
One forgets how quiet things are in Betty’s Bay in June and July and this June and July have been no exception.
Janet gets very depressed when we have a day of nil sales, so much so that she has now resorted to buying a little something herself just so that we don’t have a ‘Nil day’! After a very good April and May, June was a real comedown and our sales were 2% below June of last year. But, we remain positive and with the support of the community we know that we will thrive again in the summer months. We continue to stock interesting new items.
One of the very exciting upcoming ventures is the publication of Keith Hamilton’s Book “Birds of the Kogelberg” which is with the printers at present. The book is being published by The Kogelberg Branch of the Botanical Society of SA and is fully funded by us. We have gone out on a limb and printed 500 copies as we believe this book will be a very good seller, especially amongst the bird clubs. The photography in the book is awesome.
Remember we are selling Proteas, Leucospermums, Leucodendrons, Mimetes, Buchu, Seruria and Erica plants on an ongoing basis. You are welcome to come and have a look at what we have on offer.
MONTHLY TALKS
On 21 June we had a fascinating talk about the Cape Dwarf Chameleon by Sheraine van Wyk of Whale Coast Conservation. Afterwards we all went out with our torches into the Botanical Gardens to look for chameleons, finding one.
GARDEN CIRCLE
This month two new gardens in Pringle Bay were visited. One of the gardens started off as a building site. How many of us can say “been there, done that!”. Now, about twenty months later, after much planting, replanting, watering, nurturing and protecting against wind, the owners have a garden that is definitely not a building site anymore. Many of the plants there were successfully rescued from plots about to be excavated, prior to building.
The owners of the second garden made the leap from living in Johannesburg to living, and gardening, on a wind-swept, very wet sand dune. It didn’t take them long to realise that there’s nothing straightforward about fynbos gardening! Things like planting ten plants and having seven of them die, the wind in summer being completely different to wind in winter, having bone dry spots which suddenly turn into ponds … you know, “minor details”!
With a lot of learning, and even more persistence, the two gardens are slowly being coaxed to reflect both the beauty and challenges of this landscape. As one of the owners said: “We’re still very much a work in progress, but that’s part of the joy, isn’t it?”
Should you wish to joiun the Garden Circle contact Galia on 082 963 3804.
FRIENDS OF THE HAROLD PORTER GARDENS
The weather has played havoc with our gardening activities in the Gardens, but a few work sessions have been held this past month. Work done is definitely making a difference.
The gardening sessions are held alternately on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 8.30 till 11.30. We desperately need more volunteers as the task is huge. Please come and join us. We learn much from Ebraime, it is great fun, good exercise and the camaraderie is wonderful. Contact Viv on 084 685 2641.
SUPPORTERS OF THE KOGELBERG BRANCH OF THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA
Thank you all for your tremendous support. Our financial contribution has helped greatly to fund the hacks, Harold Porter Gardening activities, as well as some educational material this past year.
HACKS
Hangklip Hardcore Hacks: The hardcore hackers continue to do great work every Wednesday morning and on Monday mornings, when the pine infestation is being targetted.
The hackers finalized the first phase of the Pampas Grass project on Hangklip Road towards Sea Farm on 24 June. It was no easy task. The flowers heads were first cut off and dumped into a big trench that had been dug and then the remainder of the plants were sawed down, cut and dragged to the trench where they were piled on top of the flower heads. The next phase of the pampas project is to let the new leaves grow out of the stumps to about 60cm before spraying them with herbicide until they have died off completely.
Should you wish to join the hackers contact Chris on 082 900 8299.
Chris is also the convenor of the monthly Pringle Bay Hack which takes place on the last Saturday of each month. Currently the group splits in two: one group working on eradicating aliens from the verges and the other group pulling out the thousands of Rooikrans seedlings growing in the Hangklip Valley in the area that was burnt in the fire in January last year.
The Rooi Els Hack takes place on the second Saturday of every month, led by Mike Christelis. Mike can be contacted on 082 467 2795.
See Rob Boyd’s report above for news of the monthly Betty’s Bay hack which takes place every first Saturday of the month.
CREW
The Kogelberg Crew Team continues to do wonderful work in searching for endangered or near-endangered species, recording the numbers and their locations. It all helps the conservation of the fynbos in the Kogelberg Biosphere. To Adele Scheepers and the other Crew members, a heartfelt thanks for the most valuable work that you do.
The committee of the Kogelberg Branch of the Botanical Society is immensely proud of what the over 300 participants achieve in all the activities of the Branch, contributing to the conservation of the richest floral kingdom in the world, the Kogelberg Biosphere. We have an important duty to look after this treasure that nature has given us and to preserve it for many, many generations to come.
Peter Dall
082 784 4326