Simply stunning

     In a couple of locations in South Africa, I came across these amazing red plants.  There are 22  species of them native there, and they are in the genus Haemanthus and in the family Amaryllidaceae.  All the species are not red as these two are. Two common names are paintbrush and blood lily, though I do not know if they refer to these two species shown here.  You can see the difference in the stems.  The one in the burned area I was told pops up after a fire, which certainly seems to be the case.  I saw it in a remote mountain area.  The plants are bulbous perennials, and they do not tolerate freezing.

More beauty from Kirstenbosch

     Here are more photos from Kirstenbosch Gardens in Cape Town, South Africa.  The first two were taken on a boardwalk about 40 feet above the ground, allowing good views of the whole garden.
     The other photos are of two unusual and beautiful flowers of the southern hemisphere.  The Protea is the national flower of South Africa.

Kirstenbosch National Botanic Garden

     Kirstenbosch National Botanic Garden is the jewel of gardens in the country of South Africa.  It is 1300 acres in size, and it was established in 1913.  It is one of 11 botanical gardens in South Africa administered by the South African National Biodiversity Institute.  I recently visited three of these.
     I will have two posts dedicated to Kirstenbosch.  The garden is in Cape Town, situated at the base of famous Table Mountain, visible in the second and third photos.  The garden has the largest display of the genus Plectranthus I have ever seen.  The photo after their description shows a mass planting of them in flower.  They flower in late summer to early fall, which it was when I visited.  It is one of my favorite plants, and I have over 40 containers of Plectranthus coleoides.  I overwinter them in my house.

A little bit of serenity

Note: I will be in southern Africa for the next three weeks, so there will not be a post until mid-April.

   On the north side of Oahu, there is a Buddhist temple, called Byodo-in.  It is a copy of one I visited of the same name in Kyoto, Japan.  As with most such temples, one experiences a feeling of peace and serenity while walking the grounds.

A real giant

     Raymond Burr was a large man, the star of "Perry Mason" and "Ironside" in TV series.  He loved orchids, and he loved the South Pacific island of Fiji.  So in 1977 he built a large garden there to grow thousands of orchids.    He called it Garden of the Sleeping Giant, as on a nearby mountain ridge, a formation suggests a large person in the supine position (see photo two).

Back from the beauty

     I recently returned from visiting eight island groups in the South Pacific, from Tahiti in the east to the Solomon Islands in the west.
     A very unusual and beautiful bush I came across several times is Arbre podode.  As can be seen in the photos, one can see where the species name came from, as the layering looks a bit like a Japanese pagoda.