Join Panayoti Kelaidis, Senior Curator and Director of Outreach at Denver Botanic Gardens as he shares his travels to see South Africa’s Namaqualand super blooms!

Most gardeners are aware that South Africa contains extraordinary plant diversity: approximately a tenth of the world’s vascular plant flora grows natively in South Africa. The South and Western parts of the Cape are especially rich in succulents (and bulbs!). However, this area has been subjected to great drought stress thus far this century. Until 2022, that is, when heavy winter rains resulted in a fantastic display of annuals, bulbs, perennials and succulents – an event called a “Super Bloom” . . . Panayoti was so smitten that he returned in 2023 and again in 2024 (just a few months ago). Each year seemed to outdo the previous one. Seeing is believing – the technicolor audacity of a Namaqualand superbloom must be seen to be believed! It was superb!

About Panayoti Kelaidis:

Panayoti is Senior Curator and Director of Outreach at Denver Botanic Gardens. He is well-known in rock gardening circles and succulent circles, having done a great deal of plant exploration around the world, with many plant introductions that have inspired plant lovers around the globe. For this talk, he is focusing on one of the world’s best known and most spectacular hotspots for desert wildflowers – Namaqualand, in the arid northwestern part of South Africa. Read Panyoti’s blog here.

Please note: If you wish to enter the Garden, please do so before the lecture. The lecture admission price does not include entry to the Garden.

Plants pictured: Drosanthemum hispidum, Babiana curviscapa, Babiana flabellifolius, Cheiridopsis namaquensis, and Pelargonium sericifolium