A High Tea with Vintage Twist
Friday, 25th November 2022
Observatory Museum High Tea blog by Sanette Steyn
I was fortunate enough to receive an invitation to the High Tea commemorating the start, a year ago, of the Victorian Garden.
In spite of the lack of funds, donations of plants have enabled Heather Surridge and her team to make excellent progress, the garden now resembles a small park. In fact, it is Prof. Phumlani Cimi’s vision that the space will be used as a venue for various events and will be offered for free.
Heather, dressed in Victorian style, introduced the guest speaker, Sally Koen, who has been helping Heather with the garden. Sally gave an interesting talk on how Victorian Gardens became a ‘thing’ and with the exploration during that period, many different plants were taken to England – and spread throughout the world.
Several flowers such as strelitzia, roses (including adorable miniatures), begonia, coleus, begonia, fuchsia and a wide variety of ferns found in our modern gardens were also present in Victorian gardens. They basically had two gardening styles: the herbaceous border method, which was easier to manage and is still popular today, with low plants in front, taller behind that, and tallest at the back.
It was a lovely morning, and I strongly recommend anyone with an interest in plants and gardening to go and see for themselves!
You can contact the Observatory Museum on:
Phone: 046 622 2312
