Estate Living Magazine The Slow Movement - Issue 39 March 2019 | Page 45

C O M M U N I T Y
L I V I N G
FIVE PERGOLA-FRIENDLY INDIGENOUS CREEPERS
Pride of De Kaap: Bauhinia galpinii
(Calm down. That’s ‘De Kaap’, as in the valley near Barberton
in Mpumalanga. Not ‘The Cape’.) Yoh! You’ll need a big
pergola for this vigorous, scrambling, clambering, evergreen
beauty. But if you have the space – and your garden’s almost
anywhere where there’s almost no frost – it’ll reward you
with riots of orange flowers in the early summer, and towards
autumn, too.
Traveller’s joy: Clematis brachiata
This deciduous climber bears snowfalls of sweet-scented,
creamy-coloured flowers with bright yellow stamens (centre
bits) in the late summer or early autumn. The decorative, fluffy
seedheads remain on the plant well into winter. It’s suitable for
most areas of South Africa.
Black-eyed Susan: Thunbergia alata
course, and one particular South African pergola is, quite literally,
covered in glory.
Arch for Arch – a nine-metre-high wooden masterpiece alongside
St George’s Cathedral, at the entrance to Government Avenue in
Cape Town – is a wonderfully original take on this most ancient of
garden bowers.
Forest grape: Rhoicissus tomentosa
This tendril climber (unlike ivy, it has no suckers to attack your
paintwork), with its evergreen, vine-like, hand-sized leaves,
would do well on almost any medium-sized to large pergola. It
produces small, creamy-green flowers, and purple, grape-like
fruits, neither of which are particularly showy. Grow it rather
for its handsome, ornamental leaves, which start out soft, furry
and coppery, and mature to a satisfyingly deep military green.
It doesn’t do well under frost or drought.
servest.co.za
* A second, smaller version of Arch for Arch was unveiled at
Johannesburg’s Constitution Hill on the 22nd anniversary of the
Constitution: 20 December 2017.
This evergreen creeper from the central parts of the country
(Karoo, Eastern Cape, Free State, Mpumalanga) produces
beautifully fragrant white flowers in summer. It prefers fertile,
loamy, composted soil, and does best when it gets at least
moderate watering during the warmer months. Withstands
moderate frost. It’s a good choice for your pergola if you’re
gardening in containers.
I
From that earliest entryway to an official’s garden in Africa’s
northernmost country, to this striking modern construction at the
gateway to the oldest garden in its most southerly, it’s clear that,
while it does look pretty good in those gorgeous Italian gardens, the
pergola is most decidedly at home in Africa.
Wild jasmine: Jasminum angulare
Designed by the Norwegian firm of architects, Snøhetta, together
with Johannesburg-based urban designers, Local Studio, Arch
for Arch commemorates the life and work of the theologian,
anti-apartheid activist and human rights campaigner, Desmond
Mpilo Tutu, while also paying tribute to the values of South Africa’s
Constitution. Unveiled* in his presence on The Arch’s 86th birthday
(7 October 2017 ), it consists of fourteen arched beams that together
form a dome, and that correspond to the first fourteen lines of the
Preamble to the Constitution (‘We, the people of South Africa …’).
This quick-growing, usually evergreen creeper (it may be
deciduous in colder areas) is indigenous to the eastern and
northeastern parts of the country. It tolerates almost any
soil type, is relatively frost-hardy and drought-resistant, and
doesn’t become rampant even under the most favourable
conditions. It flowers almost all year round in warmer areas,
and it’s available in colour varieties that range from pale cream
to yellow and orange. Black-eyed Susan? They should’ve
called it Friendly Susan.