Buck Hemenway, Chairman of the Calitzdorp Succulent Society, shared some pictures of the succulents currently flowering in the Hemenways’ garden. These are indigenous to South Africa and while they are obviously happy to bloom in mid-summer in the garden, they are not necessarily all considered summer blooming plants.

The Adenium comes from Mpumalanga which is a summer rainfall area, and it naturally blooms in summer.

The Monsonia, Pleiospilos, Rhombophyllum and Stapelia are Karoo plants and will actually flower following rainfall in most of the year. Portulaca is a garden plant and was designed to flower in summer, while the Euphorbias flower in all of the warm months from late spring to autumn.

The Spekboom is regarded as a winter blooming plant in the warm and wet parts of eastern South Africa where it thrives. In the Klein Karoo, it is regarded as a late spring to summer flowering plant. In fact, it blooms after rainfall in the Karoo, and particularly when rains have occurred after drought. The plants in the veld have been in flower off and on since September of 2017 right through January of 2018. Very unusual and beautiful in the veld during this particularly dry year.