by Adam Harrower

I'm sure that all have heard it said that we , in the Western Cape, live in one of the six floristic kingdoms of the world, I can not emphasize enough how true this is and how blessed we are. Studying Botany at UCT, has brought me face to face with this tremendous wealth of beauty and diversity, which is matched in very few other places on the planet. The other thing is that South Africa has such a variety of flora types, ranging from the fynbos to forest to grassland etc., which is echoed in the diversity of species. In terms of bonsai use, we have been relatively biased towards exotic plants, probably because most of the literature on bonsai is from overseas and deals with tried and tested species that are sure to be fail-proof. The problem is that many of these species are often difficult, if not impossible, to get hold of and often do not like our climate so we need to look to the next best option, which in our case happens to be an extremely good one - our indigenous plant material.

by Viky Petermann

The potting season has finally come to an end. You found it to be a mad rush, but you managed to pot all your trees on time. If you think that you can now sit back and relax, think again. The fresh soil in the pots and the extra space given to the roots have given a great amount of vigour to your tree. Now is the time to begin establishing the look of maturity of your tree and what you do now will depend entirely on the stage of development of your plant.

by Rudi Adam

The following notes are given rather early - but as everyone knows, Summer, in the Cape, always turns up very suddenly and it's best to be prepared.

Summer potting is possible, as long as enough caution and after care is exercised. It is also limited to a few species, such as maple, Chinese elm (which have to be defoliated completely a few days beforehand) and the ficus species.