Sutherlandia montana

[Rob Potterton]

Hello all. We were on holiday in Scotland two weeks ago and visited Edinburgh Botanical Garden - it's a fantastic garden if you've never been with FREE entry. Quite a stange experience to one minute be fighting your way through thousands of folk in Princes Street, then 15 minutes later walking through the gates, turning a corner and seeing one of the largest rockeries in the world. Lots of interesting stuff but this one caught my eye - Sutherlandia montana, from S. Africa, quite open and upright. Does anyone else grow it, can you advise cultivation, hardiness etc;

The last image is of Betula calcicola ACE 2387, it was growing in a clay pot in a cold frame alongside the alpine house - fifteen years after helping to collect the seed in China it's great to still find these little treasures.

[Lesley Cox]

I don't know this Sutherlandia but I do grow S. something prostrata. (Oh hell, I've forgotten the name ) It is (obviously) a prostrate shrublet but otherwise very like yours Rob, with bunches of glistening satiny kaka beak flowers, like those of Clianthus but that lovely scarlet shade. For me it is hardy 3 years out of 4 but will succumb occasionaly if we have frosts over many days at at time.  It loves the sun, an open, well-drained place but is otherwise easy enough. I think it's best to renew it from seed every couple of years - plenty is set, in baggy, spotted pods - to keep the plants compact and growing well.

[Darren]

Rob - my experience of S.montana in NW England pretty much agrees with Lesley's experience. Survives most winters, quite easy from seed and from (softish) cuttings. I found it does run out of steam after a few years and does get tatty even if the frosts don't get it first. Well worth growing though.