Plant of the Month : Aster lateriflorus

Aster lateriflorus is a lively plant with a generous growth habit, covering a small area "on the second floor" above other plants with its long reaching branches that are studded with daisy-like flowers in white and red like pearls on a string, very pretty and very rewarding at this time of year, flowering into November. Although most Asters need an open sunny space, this plant  thrives well in partly shady conditions.

Our Aster lateriflorus is called "Lady in Black" , but so far has never shown the dark leaves it is supposed to have. Maybe this is because we planted it in a relatively shady place, in a "Waldrand"-setting where it becomes a loose bush with long branches dancing with their jewelly white daisy-flowers and dark red ruby centres above the decaying fray of the surrounding autumn leaves. 

Here you see it behind the small Polygonum affine repeating its red colour. 

a little jewel 

Johannesburg

So far, I had only been to Johannesburg  to switch planes en route to Cape Town or a safari destination in South Africa or Botswana. So I had no expectations when we flew to Johannesburg for a conference this spring except the usual general reluctance to go to a city of violence, high up on the list of crime statistics. When I had first been to South Africa, to Cape Town in 2001, I felt the tension between its people quite vividly. Even hotel rooms were not safe - though staying in a really nice 5* place, things were taken from the room. Nothing valuable in money, but my young son's "Schmusekissen" sleeping pillow that he always travelled with  ... I saw the chambermaid in the hallway, carrying my sons pillow with the little teddy bears on it and didn't think about it then. I did not react - thought, maybe she is going to clean or repair it, it was quite frayed at the corners and stained. No - the pillow did not come back... I am sure, the pillow was given to a small child as a present and in need of it - so when I explained to my son, he did not take it too hard. But in what kind of situation must someone be  to take the sleeping pillow of a small child?     

I was therefore apprehensive to go to Johannesburg - however, I was proven wrong. Friendly faces everywhere! The Johannesburg people seem to have gained much pride in their city, pride in their country and its achievements . And what the South African people have achieved is nothing short of a miracle - they are on a very long road to a peaceful and stable country and  still have to avoid and find a way out of the trap of corruption and cronyism, to an inclusive society for the "rainbow" country,  but there is every reason to be confident.

Visiting the Hector Petersen-Museum to commemorate the Soweto Uprising of June 16, 1976.

Mandela's and Gandhi's prison cell: 

no hiding

The city reminded me very much of Berlin. The two cities have much in common,  cities that after decades of division are coming back to life. Photographically interesting, Joburg has like Berlin many decrepid derelict abandoned buildings and lots of graffiti. The vibrancy of a young city and people coming back in can be felt on every corner.

Johannesburg lies on one side of a huge gold reef, and was founded as a goldminers' city in 1886. 

There seems to be plenty left in the mine dumps. 

Soweto, nowadays part of Johannesburg, is a city of its own - built to house the miners.  Soweto has three parts to it, an uptown middle-class area,

the middle town with the old miners' shacks,

and lower Soweto which comes closest to the image of a slum.

Johannesburg still has that fleeting unstable atmosphere, typical of cities with no long and stable history and founded for a single purpose. 

We visited an NGO that looks after HIV/Aids orphans. Some families here consist of only children, no parents, grannies, aunts or uncles left. Older siblings look after their younger family members, do the household chores, the cooking, cleaning, and go to school! Sometimes they themselves are only 10 years old when they accept such responsibilities. The NGO provides support to over 300 children, assistance with applications etc and food for these crippled families. 

Aids/HIV  is still very prevalent , estimates go up to 20 % of the adult population of South Africa. Even Nelson Mandela lost a son to HIV/Aids.  

Ferrara - weaned

Kilara and Ferrara with other mares and their foals out with a view to the Rhein-Main-Valley

Today I brought Kilara back to our stable to many welcoming whinnies.   She and her daughter Ferrara  had had a nice time together with the other mothers and kids - but from today her daughter is weaned and in a mixed group with other foals. She will stay in Hörstein for the next three years until we fetch her for her training. 

 Kilara and six-month old Ferrara going out together 

Ferrara with her peers

The Photographic Gardening Diary: Autumn Colours

Acer palmatum  (Japanese maple) 

Autumn came  all of a sudden with a temperature drop down to nightly frost and grey wet skies during the day. In anticipation of this colourless period, we had planted autumn flowering crocusses some springs ago. From about 400 bulbs, not a single one came out..... The mice in that year thrived beautifully and grew fat and complacent ... since then, we have a neighbour's cat visiting. We hardly ever see this cat, but the number of mice scurrying about in the garden has dropped and we find cat's hair on the cushions of our outdoor furniture in the mornings where he has probably slept comfortably and well fed.  

  We therefore decided to try Colchicum speciosum, the "Herbstzeitlose", with a similar growth habit. Although the large floppy leaves in spring are rather unsightly, the airy pale pink  flowers give a nice picture under the cedar tree together with the abundant autumn Cyclamen hederifolium . Colchicum is toxic and the mice know it and stay away! 

Cyclamen grow very well here in the dry soil under the tree, both C. coum in spring and C. hederifolium in autumn.

The Hamamelis on the terrace shine in bright yellow now and plenty of swelling buds will open soon and brighten up the coming winter!  

Another classical autumn combination are Sedum spectabile "Herbstfreude" and Aster dumosa "Mittelmeer". Our sedums this year have not flopped over as they usually do when not staked, because Paul has given them the "Chelsea chop" - cutting off about a third of the tops at the time of the Chelsea flower show, which makes them branch out and produce shorter stems and broader flower heads. 

Ceratostigma plumbaginoides , this blue little ground cover plant, turns its leaves a blueish red to contrast the late strikingly blue flowers. I had detected this plant covering several square meters on Isola Balbianello on Lake Como a few years ago and decided to try it out at home. It hasn't covered its ground as well as on the lake, but is certainly worth a try and we will look after it and move it, until we have found a place where it can thrive. It goes very well in combination with Heuchera "Palace Purple". 

Another blue autumn colour is provided by the large flower heads of Aconitum carmichaelii "Arendsii" - Eisenhut or Monk's hood. 

From my study window I can see the Rambling Rector, which has now produced an abundance of red tiny hips.  On the other side of the house it is extending its long arms into Camellia Dr. Burnside, which has produced large thick buds promising a spectacular April. 

the very big and bright orange hips of Mme Gregoire Staechelin

Choisya ternata still shows some late flowers as does the little Erigeron karvinskianus on the steps next to it. 

This plant is something I am a little afraid of - I have planted many Anemone hupehensis so far, but they always leave me sooner or later. They seem to grow well in many gardens without much ado - but they definitely don't like me. If I plant them in spring, they don't even bother to show up in autumn - if I buy them in October and plant them big and in flower, they will surely disappear soon, never to return in spring.  "Königin Charlotte"  is the only one, which produces one or two tiny flowers each year .... 

.... but I am in good company: When visiting Blenheim Palace gardens last year in November in Oxfordshire, I found this sign in the garden:  

A few slug-eaten leaves and nothing else - she apparently had left them as well! 

The Ngorongoro Crater

No safari in sight :(! 

With no safari planned and looking for a way to fill the travel-free void,  I have browsed through my old folders on Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater from the beginnings of my digital photography.  I started rather late with digital, when I bought the light Panasonic DMC-FZ 20 in 2005. For the previous 30 years, I had been using my reliable mechanical Nikkormat FT3 . 
To photograph animals in the wild had been on my wish list for a very long time. So when my youngest son turned ten  and was considered old and tall enough for a safari, we planned our first trip to Africa.   Photographically, I had the option to invest in my old system and stock up on a long lens or use that opportunity to get into digital and buy a new system. Comparing all the long lens alternatives, I found the Panasonic the best choice: lightweight with a strong telezoom, reasonable resolution with a very good lens, and manual options. With three young children I still had to carry lots of their stuff, so I needed a lightweight camera with little additional gear. 


These pictures were all taken with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ 20 in April 2005 in the Ngorongoro Crater (Ngorongoro Conservation Area), Tanzania.

View of the crater from Ngorongoro Crater Lodge. Early in the morning it is often filled with mist that lifts during the day. 

a view of the lake in the crater 

This lion, the head of a pride, with his distinguished hair-do, featured in a TV documentary about the crater a few weeks after our return home. What a surprise, when I saw him again during dinner in our kitchen ! 

crater walls in the distance

Hyena

Red-headed rock agama (Agama agama) 

It's like a zoo down in the crater valley...

One drawback for photographers in this paradise  - and in most National Parks like Kruger and Serengeti - is that cars are not allowed off-road, so that you often may only be able to see the animals from the distance. When choosing a destination to go on a photo safari, it is good to keep this in mind.  Many private reserves in East and South Africa allow off-road driving by their own vehicles and trained drivers and trackers with strict rules as to how many vehicles are allowed close to an animal. 

Many animals, though, use the roads for travelling, too.  The sandy tracks are much more comfortable to walk for short legged beasts and they are less prone to insect bites from the long grass.

One also has to keep in mind, that some of the private reserves in Tanzania have switched from the "real" hunting to photosafari destinations only recently. Animals have a very long memory and are much more elusive in those areas where they have been shot at in recent years. 

the first sighting of a serval in day light

Marabu storks are carrion eaters

The animals share the land with the Maasai and their livestock.

a Maasai village on the outer slope of the crater

in school

A couple of years later, I switched back to Nikon and a DSLR and invested in good lenses. I had missed the large clear viewfinder of the full frame system, so when Nikon produced the D700 as the first full-frame smallish DSLR in 2009, I switched back to Nikon and have never regretted it.  I am quite short anyway - so if I am a little shorter after a vacation with 6 to 10 kg on my back, it does not make much of a difference :). For large prints or sharp images on the screen, and yet easy handling, the large sensor DSLRs are still unsurpassed. 
However, the Panasonic LumixFZ20 and its later models in the FZ series of "bridge" cameras up to the current Lumix FZ200 and FZ1000 are still very good all-purpose lightweight super-telezoom cameras.