Cape Town - More than a ton of plant material, including some extremely rare and endangered plants, is being flown to London on Tuesday for the Chelsea Flower Show.
It will be Kirstenbosch and the South African Biodiversity Institute’s 40th exhibit and there are high hopes for a 34th gold medal.
Horticulturist Benjamin Festus and a team at Kirstenbosch have spent the past few days cleaning and packing the plants. Among them is the Marsh rose (Orothamnus zeyheri), a rare and beautiful protea, which until recently had been on the endangered list. It has since been successfully cultivated at Arnelia Farms in Hopefield.
Designers of the exhibit, David Davidson and Raymond Hudson, are already in London and will put the 100m2 exhibit together once the material arrives.
On Monday Luthando Heliso, an inspector from the Department of Agriculture, was at the seed room at Kirstenbosch making sure the plants were good to go.
“I’m checking for sand and scale but so far they are looking good,” he said.
Festus said some of the plants were cleaned using a pressure gun but the smaller ones had to be done by hand. Also in the exhibit are quiver trees (Aloe dichotoma) or kokerboom, from Kokerboom Nursery, Vanrhynsdorp, which are coming into bloom.
“The indigenous people used the branches of these trees to make quivers for their arrows,” Festus said.
A number of “Bobbejaan stert” (Xerophyta retinervis) or “resurrection” plants will also be included.
He said several of the plants needed special permits from Cape Nature because they are protected.
Sarah Struys, event manager at Kirstenbosch, said this year’s exhibit would be a reflection of the past 40 years and also focus on plants South Africa has given the world.
“Plants such as geraniums and clivias are found all over Europe but come from South Africa.”
Struys, who has been involved in the Chelsea show for eight years, said the logistics around getting everything to London were challenging. “Getting all the export and import permits, the Cites ones (for protected, endangered species), the fumigation – we only feel completely comfortable once the plants are at the showground.”
The Chelsea Flower Show takes place from May 18-23.
Cape Argus