Grow Wild Indigenous Nursery

18/12/2024

06/07/2024

04/03/2024

“The increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes is associated with higher levels of urbanisation, ageing populations, more sedentary lifestyles, and unhealthy diets, including high sugar intake. Although there is not much you can do about the first two, you can make sure that you get enough exercise and keep the sugar in your diet low.”
- www.gov.za
-
Coast/Wild Silver Oak can help to treat diabetes as well as other ailments. It is used as a tonic for diabetes and the leaves are pounded and ingested for intestinal parasite and roundworm. Early settlers burnt Brachyleana discolor and used the ash to make soap whereas the Zulu diviners use the stems and roots to communicate with their ancestors. Discolour means varying in colour which refers to the dark upper leaf and the silver under leaf. The wood is used for carving, boat and hut making, fencing and spear shafts. It has non-aggressive roots so can be planted 3 meters away from walls or in pots. It is also useful as a hedge or windbreak.
-
READ MORE ABOUT BRACHYLAENA DISCOLOR AT THE LINK IN OUR BIO
-
#

25/11/2023

Did you know that painted lady butterflies migrate to southern Europe and Africa in autumn?

We admire many creatures for their seasonal migrations - from swifts to basking sharks - yet many insects arguably make more audacious journeys. There are trillions of insects which migrate over southern England each year - the equivalent of 270 London buses!

Radar records revealed that painted ladies fly at an average altitude of over 500 metres on their southbound trip and can clock up speeds of 30 mph!

The round trip from the UK is shared by multiple generations of butterflies. So, the painted ladies returning to Africa in the autumn are several generations removed from their ancestors who left Africa in spring.

📷 Jim Higham

12/08/2023

ALOE CROWN ROT.
Bacterial rot in aloes is common during this time of the year. This is caused by the warm wet weather we have this time of the year, it starts in the soft tissue in the center of the crown. If left the rot will spread down into the stem and kill the plant.
BEST REMEDY
Just a handful of soil! But make sure you scoop out all the soft rotten plant material. If you catch it quickly enough the crown will grow out again.
IS IT NOT COOL THAT FOR ONCE ONE CAN SOLVE A DISEASE PROBLEM WITHOUT ANY COST OR CHEMICAL???? 😊😊😊😇

29/12/2021

Happy New Year from all of us at Grow Wild!
Let’s bless this new year with a MAGICAL PLANT SPOTLIGHT: Ziziphus mucronate (Buffalo Thorn)
This hardy, medium-sized, deciduous tree has so many different medicinal, magical, and useful properties!

It has many magical uses as the trees are said to ward off lightning and those sitting under a tree during a lightning storm will be safe. Branches are placed on the graves of chiefs to protect them. The branches are also used for cattle kraals and in rituals to return the spirit of the dead to their hometown. The zig-zag-shaped young branches epitomize one’s path through life which is both good and bad. The leaves are 3 veined to remind us that our relationships with God, the environment and our fellow man needs to be in balance. The forward-pointing thorns remind us to reach for our goals and the re-curved ones remind us to look back and reflect on where we have come from. Let us reflect on where we have been as well as look forward to the joys that this new year will bring us!

The Buffalo Thorn is protected in the Free State. It has non-aggressive roots, so you can plant it 4 meters from a building or a pool. This is a great bird garden tree as it attracts the insect, fruit and nectar eaters as well as being used for nesting sites. It is the larval host plant for the Black Pie, Dotted Blue, Hinza Blue, and the White Pie butterflies.
Game farmers need to plant this important fodder tree as it is browsed by giraffe, eland, kudu, sable, wildebeest, nyala, impala, klipspringer, springbok, grysbok, steenbok, dik-dik and warthog while the fruit is eaten by baboons, monkeys and warthog. The fruit is highly nutritious and are also enjoyed by guineafowl, francolins, parrots, louries and coucal. The raw fruit is edible, or it can be cooked into a porridge or roasted and used as a coffee substitute. It is also used to brew beer. Their nutritious leaves are cooked as spinach and the wood is useful for fuel, hammer handles, and spoons. Saplings are made into whips by removing the bark from the sapling. Useful if used as an informal hedge/screen or as a thorny security barrier. The flowers are used as a fish poison. The wood is used to carve bowls and spoons and the thin branches are used for fencing posts, roof struts, grain mortars and gates.

It is an important medicinal tree as the bark infusions are used for a cough, respiratory ailments and to purify the complexion. Root decoctions are used for pain, toothache, infertility, purification, and lumbago. Leaves and shoots are used as a gargle for measles and scarlet fever.
The name is derived from the Arabic zizouf= the name for the lotus or ‘jujube’ tree. The tree has dark red edible fruit from which the Victorian sweet, ‘jujube’ was made. The latin ‘mucro’ means sharp point and refers to the thorns.

Come visit the Nursery at 102 Dunmaglass Road Glenferness, Midrand – and get some PURPOSELY INDIGENOUS plants for your next garden project!
•
•
•
•
•

26/12/2021

Aloe cooperi (Coopers Aloe) is a Grassland species that is beautiful in the garden – especially now that it is in flowering season! This evergreen groundcover is frost-resistant and grows happily in the sun. The flowers occur in summer and they attract birds. It is useful for containers. This succulent copes well in moist places. This is a protected plant in South Africa.

Come visit the Nursery at 102 Dunmaglass Road Glenferness, Midrand – and get some of these hardy plants for your next garden project!
•
•
•
•
•

22/12/2021

Grow Wild is a nursery specializing in the propagation of plants indigenous to Southern Africa. We grow a wide variety of trees, shrubs, groundcovers, bulbs, and aloes. If what you want is not available at Grow Wild we will try and source for you. Some of the plants listed are not suitable for cold Highveld gardens. Our emphasis is on hardy Highveld plants which will survive periods of drought as well as harsh winter temperatures.

The retail nursery at 102 Dunmaglass Road, Glenferness, Midrand is a tranquil environment under the canopy of indigenous trees, which is well stocked and has informative labeling. We also supply wholesale plants to landscapers, schools and municipalities.

We welcome your visit or email us at [email protected] so that we can be of assistance to you. I have used The Illustrated Dictionary of Southern African Plant Names by Hugh Clarke and Michael Charters in the plant descriptions to see the derivation of the names. It makes interesting reading.

We are wheelchair accessible.

Address: 102 Dunmaglass Road, Glenferness, Midrand
NOTE: Access to Grow Wild Nursery with closure of Dunmaglass Road c/o Main Road on the weekends:
When closed, gain access via Zinnea, next road north which runs parallel to Dunmaglass.
Left at the Zinnea robot on Main Rd, First left into McInnes Road, First left into Dunmaglass Road, 2nd property on the right.

•
•
•
•
•

19/12/2021

Christmas is only a few days away! Have you purchased your indigenous Christmas tree yet?
Get a small one that you can use indoors for the festivities and then plant outside when they are done! Over these few weeks leading up to Christmas, we have been sharing our TOP 5 Indigenous Christmas Trees as well as some information about each so that you can make the best decision for your house/garden type!

Finally, in our TOP 5: Carissa macrocarpa (Large Num-Num, noem-noem)

This small evergreen tree grows to about 4 meters and is water-wise. It flourishes in the sun or semi-shade. Fragrant white flowers occur from spring to mid-summer and they attract many vibrant creatures. It is suitable for containers and coastal gardens as it tolerates wind and salt spray. It is a low maintenance plant, but in the Highveld do plant it in a protected spot as they are frost tender when young. The fruit is highly nutritious as it is rich in vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus. All the Carissa have edible fruit. It is eaten raw or cooked to produce a jam, chopped into salads, jelly, or bredies – some ideas for Christmas dinner this year, perhaps...

READ MORE about this lively tree at https://growwild.co.za/product/carissa-macrocarpa/

•
•
•
•
•