Harold Porter National Botanical Garden
The Garden is well sign-posted and provides ample parking space right at the attractive entrance to the Garden. A ridiculously low entrance fee is payable on entering the Garden after which one can choose to visit the Restaurant where delicious teas and light meals are served, or head for the tiny Souvenir Shop which is brimming over with many lovely books, gifts and other interesting items. A Plant Sales Nursery provides the keen gardener with a good selection of indigenous fynbos plants. The restaurant does offer catering services if requested.
The Garden includes a venue that is used for small meetings or informal gatherings if requested. It accommodates a group of fifteen comfortably in boardroom-style seating and twenty in cinema-style. Users should provide specialised equipment; – power points are available.
The garden has a very natural but easy walking feel to it. Many groups have used it as a pre- and post-conference excursion venue. Designated areas in the cultivated garden are also promoted for its use as a function venue for small weddings, etc. Guided walks are on offer by prior arrangement.
The garden includes elements that represent the local environment and includes wetland, fynbos, forest and coastal vegetation in the magnificent setting of the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve. Each season brings different delights in the Garden – from late December to early February the beautiful red Disa uniflora, the Western Cape's floral emblem, can be seen glowing amongst the greenery on the steep cliff faces near the lovely and easily accessible waterfall in Disa Kloof.
March and April provide gorgeous specimens of the Amaryllis family such as the March Lily, Candelabra Flower, and loveliest of all the Guernsey Lily, Nerine sarniensis, en masse near the memorial stone of the Garden's founder, Harold Porter.
Winter and spring bring the biggest array of the various proteas such as the superb King Protea, Protea cynaroides, our National flower, and ericas as well as a host of other beautiful fynbos species.
Birds, frogs and other creatures add to the tranquil atmosphere of the Garden.
There are a number of trails in the natural areas beyond the cultivated section of the Garden, some leading to the waterfalls, another taking one up onto the mountains for superb views over Betty's Bay, or another easy trail with interesting interpretive signage which connects Disa Kloof with Leopard's Kloof, a magnificent forested gorge, named for the leopards which are still found in the area. All of these trails introduce the visitor to a wide variety of plants which make up a part of our rich fynbos heritage.
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