Frangipanis

It’s Frangipani time at Old Joe’s Kaia !!

… and the gifts on the ground as I walk to open up the main building in the mornings are just so generous and welcoming. The flowers fall graciously from very high, hardly ever on their faces, and spread out proudly to display their smiling beauty.

The Frangipanis were planted by my grandfather, Johannes Boers, in the early 1950’s. Keep an eye out for them on your left as you enter through the main gate. There are also more scattered through the property – next to Rondavel 10, the public toilets and next to the swimming pool.  By now they are enormous and older than 60 years, but still give of themselves as the growth cycle demands. I was privileged to have enough flowers (in August at the very end of the season) when my Oom Dawie passed away in 2008, and again when my Aunt Lettie left in November 2011 (the start of the flowering season), to make Frangipani bouquets for their coffins. Oom Dawie played an active role on the farm in the early years when my grandfather planted these shrubs.

Frangipanis are medium to large shrubs, unless they get to the age of these at Old Joe’s Kaia where they are small trees. The branches are almost succulent and break easily. Wherever it breaks a poisonous milky sap exudes. Despite the fact that these beauties are mildly poisonous we still can’t resist picking up the flowers and marvel at the magnificence of nature!

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