The tree fuchsia (halleria lucida) has been appointed as one of the two rare trees of the year for 2009, by the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs.

This beautiful tree, with its lush, wide-spreading canopy has shiny, bright green leaves and is an indigenous evergreen tree.  Birds love to gather in this tree, so it will be ideal to plant in your garden, if you want to attract birds.  Insects also enjoy feasting on the flowers, which are very rich in nectar. 

It has elegantly drooping branches and normally has more than one stem.  Bright orange, red or yellow tube-shaped flowers – which grow on the stems and in clusters of leaves – bloom in summer and from early spring this decorative tree carries round black berries, which are clustered together.  The bark of the tree fuschia is a dull grey to brown in colour and has vertical grooves.

These trees occur naturally in coastal areas, near water and on stony mountains or hills.  The tree fuchsia can grow between 12 and 20 meters high in ideal conditions, and up to 5 meters in less favourable conditions, such as in exposed areas.  They require a lot of water.

Historically, the wood was used for tools, spear shafts and for the construction of wagon poles, as the wood is strong and hard.  Traditional medicinal uses included treatment of ear aches, by infusing the dried leaves in water. 

The landscaping experts at Kingfisher Landscaping design and implement exceptional and beautiful gardens in a professional manner and can provide the home owner with any exterior decorative feature.  We pride ourselves in providing our clients with excellent, efficient and comprehensive service.  We offer all the products and services associated with creating a peaceful, and aesthetically pleasing outdoor living space which will complement the style of your home and in which you can relax.

Spring is the season of regeneration.  You can get the best out of your garden by doing the following during this invigorating time of year.

First of all you should prune all the plants in your garden that have suffered frost damage.  This will promote new growth.

Remove dead leaves and branches from your plants and trees to stimulate growth.

You should divide your perennial plants in order to multiply them and fill your garden beds with more lush growth.

Apply mulch to your plant beds and feed your plants and lawn with fertilizer and compost.

Have your irrigation system checked out and maintained.

You can start to water your lawn and garden more regularly again – two or three times per week.

You can also plant bulbs, which flower in summer, such as arum lilies (zantedeschia species), sword lilies (gladiolus species), and dahlias.  Sow flower seeds and plant seedlings to add vibrant splashes of colour to your garden.

Once your spring flowering plants have finished blooming, you can prune them back to ensure strong growth during the next spring period.

Finally, you should check all of your plants for diseases and treat them accordingly.

The landscaping experts at Kingfisher Landscaping design and implement exceptional and beautiful gardens in a professional manner and can provide the home owner with any exterior decorative feature.  We pride ourselves in providing our clients with excellent, efficient and comprehensive service.  We offer all the products and services associated with creating a peaceful, and aesthetically pleasing outdoor living space which will complement the style of your home and in which you can relax.

The Tree Euphorbia (euphorbia ingens) is fleshy, prickly and has many branches, resembling candelabra.  10ℓ or 20ℓ tree euphorbias also make for beautiful, sculptural pot plants. 

These plants also require very little maintenance and will flourish both indoors and outdoors.  Tree euphorbias grow quickly but, are also easy to transplant.  Therefore, you can remove them from the pots and plant them in your garden, when they grow too big.  They are sensitive to frost, so it is best to put them in a sunny area and out of the wind, during winter. 

Pot – or container – gardening is a very low-maintenance way of creating a garden and is also ideal for small areas.  Another advantage to pot gardening is that you can bring the outdoors indoors. 

The landscaping experts at Kingfisher Landscaping design and implement exceptional and beautiful gardens in a professional manner.  We pride ourselves in providing our clients with excellent, efficient and comprehensive service.  We offer all the products and services associated with creating a peaceful, and aesthetically pleasing outdoor living space which will complement the style of your home and in which you can relax.

Tree Aloes (aloe bainesii) – Africa’s largest aloes – have a striking, sleek appearance and are also perfect to be used as pot plants.  On has to make sure that the proposed pot has a base with a large circumference, to prevent the whole ensemble from toppling over, once the aloe grows larger and becomes top heavy.  The creative and practical experts at our in-house décor company, Badec Bros Deco, will design and manufacture the perfect Cubedec pot for your tree aloe.

These aloes can grow up to 15 meters in height.  The forked branches will in time spread out into a dense crown, contrasting beautifully with the smooth, grey bark of the stem. 

Pretty cylindrical, orange-pink flowers will bring life to your garden or veranda during winter (June and July), making this sculptural plant an ideal focal point for any outdoor living space.  The leaves are dark green in colour and are long and narrow, with graceful curving.

Pot – or container – gardening is a very low-maintenance way of creating a garden and is also ideal for small areas.  Another advantage to pot gardening is that you can bring the outdoors indoors.

The landscaping experts at Kingfisher Landscaping design and implement exceptional and beautiful gardens in a professional manner.  We pride ourselves in providing our clients with excellent, efficient and comprehensive service.  We offer all the products and services associated with creating a peaceful, and aesthetically pleasing outdoor living space which will complement the style of your home and in which you can relax.

People tend to have a picture of landscape architects in their mind that is far from accurate. They tend to picture a garden designer whose sole job is to design a garden around a modern house. But landscape architects are more than that. This is a profession that is far more outreaching than just garden design, though that can be part of it. This is because they see the need to plan for ecologically sustainable landscapes and for integrating man and nature’s needs for the benefit of the environment at large. Long words, but I’m trying to instil in your mind a picture that is not just the garden designer.

When you’re thinking of engaging landscape architects you have to think a little bigger. Although we’re not restricted to them, many of our assignments have been in the field of golf estates, retirement villages and housing estates. Whenever a new building goes up, someone is going to call in the landscape architects to design the surrounds. Kingfisher Landscaping is proud to profess a client base of over 3500 clients and we have successfully completed work all over South Africa. We aim to provide a professional service to all our existing and future clients, and will always strive for perfect service delivery using only the best of products. Our long-term aim is to set up a worldwide client base serviced through branches throughout the world. If you would like to know more about our services, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

The landscaping experts at Kingfisher Landscaping design and implement exceptional and beautiful gardens in a professional manner.  We pride ourselves in providing our clients with excellent, efficient and comprehensive service.  We offer all the products and services associated with creating a peaceful, and aesthetically pleasing outdoor living space which will complement the style of your home and in which you can relax.