Hot weather



Cyrtanthus epiphyticus - a lovely but strictly terrestrial plant from grassy slopes in the Drakensberg.

For the past couple of weeks we have been enjoying some real summer weather, with genuinely hot days in the upper 20s - rather too warm for comfort in the afternoons, but cooling to give delightful evenings. The garden has responded with a spurt of growth (aided by irrigation on occasion) and the borders are finally looking really colourful. To convey the sense of brazen heat, however, here are three brightly coloured plants of South African origin that are flowering now, though all are potted.

Gladiolus flanaganii is another Drakensberg plant, in this case growing horizontally from cracks in basalt cliffs high on the escarpment. Sadly its colour is not as deep a red in cultivation as it is the wild.

Pelargonium 'Stadt Bern' is about as red as 'red geraniums' come - a firecracker of a plant, and modestly sized.