Natural Landscapes & Gardens of South Africa

Overnights Cape Town, Waterfront (3 nights) • Cape Town, Newlands (5 nights) • Mossel Bay (1 night) • Knysna Quays (2 nights) • Umhlanga/Durban (2 nights) • Hilton/Natal Midlands (2 nights) • Johannesburg (4 nights)

Sites visited Cape Region Table Mountain • Robben Island • Biodiversity Showcase Garden at Green Point Park • Private gardens designed by Franchesca Watson including her own (Tropical Garden, Traditional Garden, Glamourous Garden, Relaxed Garden) • Bo-Kaap Malay Quarters • Cape Town city centre including Company's Garden & Mt Nelson Hotel • Cape Point Nature Reserve • Gardens at Cellars-Hohenort • Kirstenbosch National Botanic Garden • !Khwa ttu San Education and Cultural centre • West Coast flower reserves & Darling Wildflower Show • Stellenberg Gardens • Babylonstoren Garden • Henk Scholtz's Garden • Schoongezicht Gardens at Rustenberg • Vergelegen Gardens Knysna Elephant Park, Forest & Lagoon Durban Botanic Gardens • Private garden designed by John Brookes • Muckleneuk House & Garden Natal Midlands Private gardens of Pietermaritzburg & Hilton • Riversfield Farm • Saint Verde Nursery Johannesburg Pretoria • Brenthurst Gardens • Landscape design projects by African Environmental Design with director Sonja Swanepoel • Nirox Foundation Sculpture Garden • Cradle of Humankind & Sterkfontein Caves • Soweto & Mandela House • Apartheid Museum

Guest Landscape Designers 

Franchesca Watson, Cape Town

www.franchescawatson.com

The detailed planning process that went into this tour would not have borne such fruit were it not for one of South Africa's most important garden designers, Franchesca Watson. Franchesca has introduced us to a wonderful range of experts, and facilitated our entry into a large number of private properties. Originally trained in performing and decorative arts, Franchesca realised her fascination with combining biological life and art by retraining as a landscape designer. Francesca is a Contributing Garden Editor to Condé Nast House and Garden South Africa and her commissions range from residences, apartments and private estates to hotels, located all over Southern Africa to the Seychelles and North America. She and her associates will enrich your experience of this great country immeasurably.

Henk Scholtz, Franschoek

http://henkscholtz.com/about.html

Henk Scholtz is a renowned South African landscaper, and his garden is featured on Monty Don's BBC series Around The World In 80 Gardens.

Sonja Swanepoel, Johannesburg

African Environmental Design www.aedlandscape.co.za

Sonja Swanepoel, whose work is central to our appreciation of recent developments in and around Johannesburg, is director of the important company African Environmental Design. Before she established this company in 1997, Sonja worked for 5 years in landscape design, urban design projects, residential development, hotel developments, and the creation of public open spaces. Her company now has added to these professional areas' work in corporate landscapes, game reserves, farms, urban design (streetscapes; public parks) and rehabilitation and re-establishment of viable ecosystems. African Environmental Design is concerned in particular to relate its strong environmental focus and natural African landscape inspiration to architecture and urban space. This is shown in its Highveldt House project, which in 2011 was recipient of South Africa's prestigious Corobrik and Institute for Landscape Architecture in South Africa (ILSA) Award for Excellence.

About the Tour

This exciting tour of one of the most plant-rich zones in the world draws upon the expertise of foremost landscape architects, horticulturalists, botanists and gardeners, and upon the kindness of garden owners who have opened their private gardens to us. Experts and owners will give you unparalleled insights into South Africa's truly unique flora and ecosystems and introduce the country's incredible range of distinctive plants, many of which have had a decisive impact upon Australian gardening.

Our tour covers three of South Africa's provinces: the Western Cape, Kwazulu-Natal, and Gauteng. Each of these regions contributes to the tour in distinctive, fascinating ways. In the Western Cape province, which includes Cape Town, the West Coast and the famous 'Garden Route', you will enjoy a large variety of beautiful gardens set against the awesome beauty of Table Mountain and the Atlantic Ocean. Gardens range from those in the English and Dutch styles such as the splendid Stellenberg Gardens, to contemporary creations by famed designers such as Franchesca Watson and Henk Scholtz. You will encounter a bewildering variety of species at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, the earliest to be dedicated to preserving a nation's flora, and at the new Biodiversity Showcase Garden designed by botanist and landscaper Marijke Honig. Botanical Horticulturalist Adam Harrower will lead excursions at the extraordinary Cape Point Nature Reserve, on the southernmost tip of the great African continent, and at the West Coast's flower reserves. A special feature of this tour is that it is timed to coincide with the spectacular spring wildflowers, and you will view these in areas that are only opened to visitors at this time of year. On the Garden Route, we take a walk with elephants through indigenous Cape Fynbos and join conservator Leon Nell to study Knysna's indigenous forest of huge hardwood trees such as the Yellowwood.

Our sojourn in Kwazulu-Natal, which includes the Indian Ocean port of Durban and the regional capital Pietermaritzburg, will introduce you to South Africa's multicultural history through the cosmopolitan culture of indigenous Africans, English, Dutch, Indians, Indonesians and Malay. Here you will experience the rich history of gardening in South Africa; Durban botanic Gardens, established by the Dutch, is one of the oldest in Africa. You will also visit gardens designed by eminent British landscape designers David Hicks and John Brookes who adapted their garden traditions to a new climate, culture and landscape. We shall also enjoy Pietermaritzburg and Hilton's many delightful private gardens with examples ranging from small townhouses to sweeping gardens, rose gardens influenced by Sissinghurst, and a collector's succulent nursery.

The final region we shall visit, Gauteng, offers you grand estates, such as those of Sir Herbert Baker in Johannesburg's suburb of Parktown, and Brenthust Gardens, whose designer, Joane Pim, is a pioneer in South African landscape design. Here, you will also encounter groundbreaking architecture and landscape design. Sonja Swanepoel of African Environmental Design will show us her award-winning landscape design projects that surround some of the best in South African contemporary architecture, by Johannesburg architectural firms StudioMAS and Van Der Merwe Miszewski.

The tour is enriched by other fascinating experiences. You will gain an understanding of the colonial and modern history of South Africa, its lovely Cape Dutch homesteads, its fine Victorian monuments, and ultra-modern architecture. You will encounter the deepest of human pasts from the caves and museum exhibits of Gauteng, site of the very oldest remains of Australopithicus, our first forebear. In stark contrast, you will be given the opportunity to experience South Africa's rich, contemporary, ethnic cultural mix, and to ponder the future of this recently transformed nation.

At the conclusion of the program participants may choose to extend their stay in this wonderful part of the world by taking an unforgettable safari in the Krüger National Park, with dawn and dusk outings by jeep to see the famous Big Five of South Africa - the lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino and/or by flying to Livingston in Zambia to see the spectacular Victoria Falls (not included in tour price - please contact ASA for further information).