Visiting ZA

Roy Herold rherold@yahoo.com
Tue, 14 Nov 2006 19:40:32 PST
Hallo Group,

On Thursday we're off to South Africa for our bi-annual trip to visit 
relatives (my wife is from ZA) and do some sightseeing, with a bit of 
botanizing thrown in for good measure.

Do any of you experienced travellers and/or ZA residents have 
recommendations for interesting plant spots? I know it's getting a 
little late for some of our favorite winter bulbs, but there should be 
plenty of others. We are flying into Joburg, then fly to George, drive 
to Plett, make a loop through the Little Karoo via Oudtshoorn, drive to 
Cape Town, fly to Durban, drive to the Drakensberg for a couple of days, 
back to Joburg and home. I'm exhausted already...

Everything we've seen in previous trips has been fantastic, with a wider 
range of plant material that I ever imagined was possible to find in a 
relatively small area. Some of my favorite bulbs have ranged from a tiny 
ledebouria from the Drakensberg to a huge haemanthus (deformis?) with 
leaves the size of a toilet seat (pardon my comparison) in the Silver 
Mine Nature Reserve south of Cape Town. And everything in between.

I'm also looking for recommendations for good nurseries to visit, as 
they have been very hard to come by in earlier trips. Most seem to be 
carbon copies of American nurseries, and not at all interesting. I'm 
guessing the better ones are off the beaten track.

Feel free to reply directly to me if you think your advice isn't 
sufficiently bulbous....

Thanks in advance,

--Roy


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