Indigenous Nursery News Blog

Patches or swathes of longer indigenous grasses or grass-like species not only look beautiful in the garden, but are important for garden wildlife. They provide food, a place to rest, hide or move undetected, and provide nesting material for some birds and small mammals. Many seed-eating birds rely on the bounty of grasses in seed. 

There are many butterflies that roost in grasses at night, and certain grass species are also host plants to the Brown butterflies.

Insect pollinators love the pollen-rich flowers of plants such as Anthericum saundersiae. Carpenter bees and butterflies are some of the pollinators that you will see visiting their pretty, white, star-like flowers.

Sometimes one can hear the big, heavy Carpenter Bees before you see them. They are often mistakenly called "Bumble Bees", but we do not get Bumble Bees in South Africa. Carpenter bees pollinate a number of different flower species for both pollen and nectar, so are valuable to have in the garden if you want your plants to make seed and multiply.

Read the interesting article on Buzz Pollination on our website. It describes an interesting way in which some flowers are pollinated.

Weaver birds sometimes strip the long, thin leaves to make their nests. Some small mammals also eat the leaves. A Random Harvest customer living near a wild area would often wake up to find that something had come in and munched off the tasty fresh green leaves, leaving only a few centimeters...which quickly grew again in summer.

In the garden, Weeping Anthericum should be cut back once or twice a year to keep it looking good.

Read more about this beautiful, wildlife friendly plant here.