The Karoo Desert National Botanic Garden has been located in Worcester in the Western Cape since 1946. It includes natural semidesert vegetation and landscaped gardens. It has a large succulent collection and the largest cultivated collection of quiver trees, Aloe dichotoma.
This garden also has a bulb collection. Pictures below show new concrete beds that are proving to be a useful way to grow bulbs. The second picture The picture below was taken during the IBSA conference in August 2003 and shows IBSA members who were given a tour of the bulb collection including Rachel Saunders in sunglasses. And finally the last shows unidentified Amaryllids growing in the containers. Photos by Bob Rutemoeller
Photos by Mary Sue Ittner of a spectacular flowering Babiana growing in the beds in September 2006 that we believe to be Babiana sambucina.
Photos by Mary Sue Ittner of Brunsvigia leaves photographed September 2006. The first is Brunsvigia bosmaniae , a species found in the northwest and southwest Cape and in the Roggeveld on open flats, coastal sand, loam, or granite soils. And the second is Brunsvigia josephinae, a species with a widespread distribution in the western Cape which receives mainly winter rainfall.
Photos by Roy Herold taken of Cyrtanthus obliquus October 2002.
Photos by Bob Rutemoeller taken August 2003 of two Cyanellas growing in the bulb collection, first the yellow form of Cyanella alba from the Biedouw Valley and second Cyanella cygnea which is a species from northern Namaqualand which is distinguished by the upper 3 stamens that are free and curved like the neck of a swan.
Two Ferrarias tentatively identified are pictured below. The first is Ferraria variabilis and the second Ferraria uncinata happily growing in one of the sections of the elevated raised beds where it has a deep root run. Photos by Bob Rutemoeller taken August 2003.
Sparaxis variegata photos taken August 2006 by Bob Rutemoeller and Mary Sue Ittner.
