My Andalusian Garden - Souvenirs

Summertime should be a time for travelling but alas - we still have to hold out in our familiar neighbourhoods and wait for the world to be vaccinated. From the EU still no travel to the US is possible, where my daughter is studying now, no travel to Africa, no travel to Australia. I used to bring plants from my travels, either small cuttings or seeds from wherever I went, to try them out in my garden or in pots indoors if they were too tender and would not stand the German cold winter and lack of sunshine. The mediterranean climate in my new garden and a bit of selective artificial watering allows for plants from areas all over world with temperate climates and I am keen to travel again and find new inspiration. 

Pilea microphylla

This versatile plant I brought from our summer vacation in 2018 on the island of Jamaica where I took a tour with the head gardener of the hotel which was  surrounded by a beautiful large quasi-botanic garden. He gave me cuttings of Pilea microphylla  and said, it was a "throw it, grow it" plant. It is exactly that: I potted it in soil in Germany in my study indoors and it grew roots immediately. I made more cuttings from that and planted them outside here in my garden in Andalucia. In English the plant is called "Artillery fern" (although it is not a fern at all, it belongs to the family of Urticacea, so is distantly related to our stingy nettles) and seems to be quite common and even invasive in some parts of the world, but I have never seen it sold anywhere. In my garden it is not invasive at all, I have not found any seedlings. It is a great easy ground cover for new empty soil. Its leaves are slightly succulent and it can survive many different conditions.

Anigozanthos flavidus  

I am growing a few Australian plants that my daughter brought over when she returned from her studies in Sydney. She carried them either as little pots in her suitcases or as seeds all bought from the wonderful little plant shop in Sydney Botanic Garden. 

Anigozanthos flavidus, the cangaroo paw plant, is easily grown from seed to make imposing plants within two years. I actually found smaller versions here in garden centers, but the one I grew from seed are the strongest and biggest and very effectual with long-lasting greenish-yellow flowers that reach 1,50 m high. 

Their slender, sword-shaped leaves go well with plants with smaller leaves like salvias or dissected leaves like Geranium maderense. 

details of the open flower with its little, asymmetrically arranged toes 

Another Australian plant is Hakea laurina which my daughter gave me for christmas 2019. It thrives well here and has turned into a healthy bush with interesting leaves. We are hoping it will show its beautiful flowers next winter. 

going through airport security and customs in my handbag :)

Clerondendron fragrans

Not always can I bring cuttings or seeds. Sometimes just an idea is enough, an encounter in a foreign garden, a scent, a beautiful leaf or interesting flower.  Just like collecting memories by taking photographs of nice moments in time spent with friends, or travelling to new interesting places, I am trying to collect memories of scents that remind me of special moments by planting scented plants that make me relive those moments, or by choosing plants from certain geographies that may remind me of a summer vacation - souvenirs, like memories of a comforting warm hug or a pair of black eyes.  Clerodendron fragrans is a plant I saw first in Israel in the garden beside the path to the entrance of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Its scent was so dramatic that I still remember it forty years on.  I ordered a plant online which is sometimes difficult here in Spain as shipped plants don't survive long in their cartons if transport takes too long, which it does often. Mine is growing well and making a small thicket. The first flower has not opened yet and I am waiting to see if this is the correct plant - I have something much more whitish in my mind - and whether it carries the scent I remember. 

Gardenia jasminoides

The brilliant Botanic Garden in Dallas grows huge Gardenia jasminoides in mostly shady groves underneath huge trees. When I found some here I planted them last autumn in a corresponding shady place on the east side of our terrain. So far they like it, have blossomed well and are growing a new layer of leaves this summer. 

Delonix regia can be an imposing tree, red flowered with finely structured leaves that I noticed on Jamaica but also in Israel forty years ago. We planted one on our lawn expecting it to create a umbrella-style shady area in front of the terrace. Last winter was very tough here, with high winds and an unsual amount of rain and it did not like it one bit and lost all its leaves - but it returned in May with the heat and is thriving now in our summer here. Several winters will be needed to see if it will survive the conditions on our hillside and grow into the desired natural shape of a wide shade-giving umbrella.   

Pandanus utilis 

I met this imposing plant on the St Geran golf course on Mauritius. Sadly the golf course does not exist anymore, holiday villas have been constructed and I hope the plant decorates a garden now. Here we planted a large bush with many stalky aerial roots. Its leaves appear in a characteristic spiral. 

I found seeds of Eryngium pandanifolium which I tried just for the name to compare what its leaves would look like. I had read that it is supposed to be the most imposing Eryngium. I am not sure about that, but the leaves are beautiful and the striking upwards reaching flowers are always full of bees. 

Coffea arabica

Other ideas I get from books: Tania Blixen's efforts in the wonderful movie "Out of Africa" starring Meryl Streep  who creates a coffee plantation on the slopes of Mount Kilimandscharo made me try a Coffea arabica plant. The first sample that I received here got a severe sunburn and withered within a day. I tried again and covered the second until it has adjusted - we will see (or "vamos a ver" in Spanish), whether I will be able to show pictures in a year. And hopefully I will have travelled again and have brought other species for my garden. There is still plenty of space.  

Andalusian Travels - Sendero Acequia de Guadalmina

Close to our newly aquired holiday home I found a nice afternoon walk (a "sendero") along the old watering system (acequia) of the local town that the farmers used for terrace farming. It is an easy 5 km - mostly flat - with beautiful views of flora and fauna of the quiet lovely mountains behind busy Marbella. 

The water coming down naturally in small rivulets from the mountains is diverted through a multitude of small channels and gates leading down into the Guadalmina valley and the mediterranean sea. 

 Cork oak trees (Quercus suber) grow beside the path. Their bark is harvested every seven years from the trunk up to a certain height. The tree will recover and build up new cork. 

The path often crosses the aquaeduct and in part leads over it.

In the distance one can see the firebreaks cleared of the dry undergrowth, crisscrossing the hills and protecting the urbanizaciones. In summer it can be very hot and dry here and the risk of wild fires is real.

In May, though,  hundreds of frogs seem to gather in the refreshing water streams and pools. 

Careless ones are washed down the streams....

 Some areas are used for bathing in the summer but the water level is variable

the mediterranean sea in the far distance

 Pastoral Scenes

Visit : A Rainy Week on the Costa del Sol

The rain in Spain falls mainly ... in Andalucia! 

Last week we were retracing steps made thirty years ago when we had visited Costa del Sol, the sunny coast in the south of Spain. We remembered a terrible and surprisingly cold weather then, we had to buy long-sleeved sweaters as we came wholly unprepared during May 1988  - but now we had the weather apps and were forewarned. Though Costa del Sol and the area around Marbella claim 320 sunny days per year, we always seem to be there during the remaining few days of rain and clouds. Friends living there praised the rain that we apparently brought with us - they had been waiting for months for a drop on the parched soil. Apparently, the downpours during our stay filled the reservoirs up in the mountains that supply water for the cities down on the coast up to the brim and would last for two or three years now. 

Málaga

It is raining but at least it is warm. Fountains don't have to be emptied for winter.

for better days

the view from the old fort Alcazaba towards Malaga harbour

On a rainy day the Museo Carmen Thyssen is worth a visit with Spanish scenes from the 19th and early 20th century ... 

The Church of the Sainted Martyrs (Iglesia de Los Santos Martires) is in the old town with interesting ceramic tiles on the outside and a very rococo interior. 

A trip to Gibraltar ... can you make out the apes' rock? The high winds were so gusty from the Atlantic, we decided to stay in the car...

The old town of Granada is only a 90 min drive from the coast up into the mountains. Our visit to Alhambra had been booked months ahead, so we were not flexible as entrance is strictly limited to  a specific time.  

a selection of umbrella designs on a walk through the Generalife, the summer palace of the rulers of Alhambra

I realized the merits of those strange plasticky transparent umbrellas that the hotel gave us: there are no limits to the view into the rain and whatever can be detected behind the curtain of falling raindrops. One can even take pictures through or below...

the winter view from Generalife to Alhambra

oranges and almonds

 an old aquaeduct for watering the gardens

A short break : Visiting in bad weather has the distinct advantage of fewer tourists in the picture.

the famous Court of the Lions

delicate plaster elements

She, too, was waiting out the rain under cover. 

The courtyard of the Parador of Granada, an old Franciscan monastery.

Finally the sun came out and we found a dry spot. 

 Panorama of the Alhambra from the Albaicin quarter on the opposite hill. 

 street musician at Granada Cathedral 

... the weather is improving ...

Marbella beach at the end of February

 the village of Benahavís up in the mountains north of Marbella

 A lounge at Finca Cortesin, a very nice hotel a bit off from the coast

Some colour, even in winter

and what nasty creature is this? Ceiba speciosa, the "Silk floss tree".