Summer Movies 2016: Around the World in 80 Gardens – South Africa

For my final journey with Monty Don, we’re heading to South Africa to visit gardens, and see famous movie star plants in their native environment. In this episode, he admits to resisting the trip to South Africa because of the history of apartheid, but resolves to overcome it. While traveling he falls in love with the country and revels in its plants. Grab your sunglasses, and join us for our final summer destination!

South Africa (Season 1, Episode 8)

Monty Don first visits Cape Town at the base of Table Mountain, and the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. The garden was established in 1913, occupies 100 acres, and includes 7000 species, all of which are native to South Africa. The collection includes many species of Proteas (over 350 types), and ancient Cycads (dinosaur era). The garden merges with the Table Mountain National Park (our Linnaeus apostle, Carl Peter Thunberg, would have roamed the fynbos and veldt of this area in search of botanical specimens).

The Cape area has a Mediterranean climate, with dry seasons with no rain. Table Mountain (with its “table cloth of clouds”) provides springs year round, so was an ideal place for the Dutch East Indian Company to establish a base. They founded company gardens to grow food and plants to replenish their ships, which had rounded the treacherous cape after a six-month voyage. Some of the gardens later grew ornamental plants, and became pleasure gardens. Monty visits several colonial gardens in the area, including The Company Garden.

Monty then travels inland to the Drakensberg Mountains, and roams the hills and meadows, encountering many plant species that were introduced in Europe, and that he grows in his own garden, such as lobelia. He realizes that the plants grow in the high, cool altitudes of these mountains, making them easily grown in the higher latitudes of Northern Europe. He is struck with the natural beauty of the mountains, and the native plants growing in situ.

Later Monty heads for Johannesburg, and visits several interesting gardens. The Savannah Rock Garden was created by a sculptor married to an artist. The garden that started as a way to relax at the end of the day, became an obsession and a living sculpture of native rocks and plants. Another garden is the Thuthuka School Garden in Tembisa Township, which serves as an outdoors class room where children learn about the healing properties of plants, and how to tend and enjoy a garden. He also visits the private Brenthurst Gardens, which started as a tightly controlled Edwardian garden, and is now a naturalistic garden using native plants. Hope you enjoy the final leg of our summer tour: https://youtu.be/EJCjYithz28