Moving to sunny South Africa

[ed110220]

Next year I will be moving to Richards Bay in South Africa which is exciting as hopefully it will mean I will be able to grow a lot of plants I cannot at the moment. I've never been up there and though I know the climate is described as subtropical I'm not sure exactly what this means will be happy up there. Also, being from the Mediterranean Western Cape I have no experience of subtropical gardening so it will probably be a steep learning curve.

Richards Bay lies at about 28 degrees South and about 150 km North East of Durban. It has never recorded frost and most of the rain falls in summer. I'm guessing the climate will be somewhat similar to that of South Florida or parts of Queensland.

These are the climate stats for Richards Bay: http://www.weathersa.co.za/Climat/Climstat...rdsBayStats.jsp

Any ideas?

[bgl]

Hi Ed,

Welcome to the IPS Forum! Even though I'm obviously not familiar with the specific conditions in your new area, sounds to me like you should be able to grow just about everything, except probably some of the real tropical palms, like Cyrtostachys renda. We had another thread very recently (in the main section), where members mentioned the palms that they felt were the most tropical, i.e. cold sensitive.

Aloha from Hawaii!

Bo-Göran

[ed110220]

Thanks Bo-Göran!

I'm hoping to grow some of the 'iconic' plants of the tropics like Roystonea, coconut palms, Bismarckia, the jade vine, things I've only dreamed of before. No doubt there are a lot of plant treasures I have not even heard of yet.

[Jeff Searle]

Ed,

 Welcome also. You mentioned jade vine. It's a winner! Mine here in South Florida is blooming it's butt off! I'll try to post a couple of pics. in a few days when it has several flowers hanging. If you never had this growing before, your in for a real treat, to say the least.

Jeff

[Walt]

Speaking of jade vines, I will have to check with a buddy of mine acroos town who has one. It should be in bloom right now as I took these two photos of it on March, 20, 2004.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1126929077042496162nAzBCb

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1126929570042496162jvfRLq

[happ]

ed

Agree w/ Bo-Göran. Similar to south Texas coastline.  Great growing conditions  :cool:

[ed110220]

Those jade vine flowers are great, such a unique colour! I can't think of another flower with the same shade.

For some reason comparable climate stats for the USA seem to be harder to find than those for Australia (before anyone says I can convert C to F lol). Having a quick look at those for Australia, Richards Bay is warmer than Brisbane but not as warm as Townsville. It seems most similar to Rockhampton and Mackay but not quite so dry in Winter.