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CHAPTER 2 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Introduction
In this chapter a historical background and time frame to the use of ornamental plants over the world in general, and in South Africa specifically will be given. The fundamental value of ornamental plants in human life will be investigated and discussed with the purpose of enlightening why we acquire ornamental plants.
A brief historical overview of ornamental plant use
Introduction
Since the earliest times, humans have cultivated food plants, especially wheat and grain. According to Simpson & Ogorzaly (2001:42), the practice of agriculture seems to have begun simultaneously about 10 000 years ago in many different parts of the world. At the time, survival was of primary concern and it is highly unlikely that plants would have been grown simply for their ornamental value. As civilisations developed, plants were discovered and collected from the wild for uses other than food.
According to Simpson & Ogorzaly (2001:419), the cutting of flowers and foliage for personal and ceremonial use dates back to prehistoric times. Excavations of Palaeolithic burial sites have shown that sprigs of flowers placed around bodies were important for burial rites. Most edible crops were introduced into cultivation thousands of years ago. There are only a few new edible plants in the contemporary western world such as pecan, blueberry and kiwifruit, but even these plants have been cultivated since ancient times by local farmers in their native region. This is not the case with ornamental crops. According to Halevy (1999:407), many of the commercial cut flowers, pot plants and garden plants were not cultivated commercially until a few decades ago.
Although human appreciation of plants is probably inborn, the ability to exploit plants so successfully is in large part a result of the human’s unique capacity to transmit knowledge culturally. Plants were tried and discarded, or added to the repertoire of those already used. Because different kinds of plants were available in different parts of the world, various peoples built up their own inventories of useful plants.
Once people began to use some species of wild plants preferentially over others or to sow the seeds of selected individuals, they began to alter the plants used. Wild sources have been largely abandoned in favour of species that humans were able to modify into particularly productive or pleasing crops. This trend has led to the present situation, in which only about 20 species, all highly modified by humans, are of major economic importance. For example the most important cereals are barley, maize, millet, oats, rice, rye, sorghum and wheat (Simpson & Ogorzaly, 2001:1).
On the contrary, the ornamental plant industry is characterised by its great diversity. There are more ornamental plant species cultivated today than all other agricultural and horticultural crops combined. In some ways the introduction of new ornamental crops is easier than for edible crops. Neither their nutritional value nor their potential toxicity to humans has to be considered (Halevy, 1999:407). Vast numbers of new cultivars have resulted from breeding programmes and many thousands of species and cultivars of ornamental plants are commercially readily available today.
The staggering number of horticultural plant species in existence nowadays may best be illustrated by reference to the 2012-2013 edition of the Royal Horticultural Society Plant Finder which lists over 70,000 plants available in the United Kingdom alone (http://apps.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantfinder) accessed 12/04/2012). On top of this, it is estimated that across the world there are probably as many more types of plants grown for the production of cut flowers, as pot plants and from seed that are not included in the RHS catalogue or in any other similar publication (Brickell, 2001:160).
The beginnings of plant utilisation as ornamentals
From early times, different cultures have adopted diverse species as favourite ornamental plants and have developed personal styles in the use of cut flowers. The cut flower market today is increasing globally and is growing at the rate of 6 – 9% per year (Cadic & Widehem, 2001:76; Simpson & Ogorzaly 2001:419), with a turnover in Europe of approximately € 37 bn in 2001 (Cadic & Widehem, 2001:76).
The development of gardens, however, had to wait until humans were settled. Only once people have settled in one place can they lay out, plant and tend the flowers and trees of a garden. Horticulture represents a primary, essential element of civilisation, and civilisation and urbanisation are almost synonymous and go hand in hand. It has been pointed out by many authors that the cultivation of gardens requires people to have ceased a nomadic way of life and settled in one place. Conversely, it is virtually impossible for people to settle in one place without cultivation (Burchett, 1995:81; Simpson & Ogorzaly, 2001:402). It follows that the production of ornamental plants on a commercial basis is a product of urbanisation.
It is even said that all gardens are the products of leisure; it is no good looking for gardens in a society where humans need to survive. In other words, horticulture has to be understood as an expression of the desire to improve the quality of human life, and may include everything from producing a steady, secure supply of selected and improved fruit and vegetables, to the concentration of beauty in one place which the cultivation of a beautiful garden brings about (Burchett, 1995:81).
Gardens throughout history have been designed and used for a variety of both practical and spiritual purposes (King, 1985:1; Burchett, 1995:81) which include:
- Cultivation of food and medicine.
- Provision of pleasure and enjoyment – with beauty and fragrance.
- Creation of idealised landscapes – to symbolise religion, philosophy and aesthetics.
- Display of wealth and well-being.
- Contrasting wilderness with order – by creating order from wilderness.
- Satisfaction of intellectual needs – for rare and unusual plants.
Gardens of an age express an image of paradise for the people who create them at the time. Consequently, the historical development of gardening styles often paralleled that of the philosophical thinking of civilisations. Similarly, those of previous cultures have shaped the roots of modern landscaping ideas (Simpson & Ogorzaly, 2001:402). All design derives from impressions of the past, and the modern collective landscape, conscious or subconscious, from historic gardens and parks and silhouettes, which may have been created for totally different social reasons. Often only the small private garden remains true to its instinctive unchanged purpose of expressing, protecting and consoling the individual (Jellicoe & Jellicoe, 1995:7).
Flowers, fruits and leaves have been used as ornaments for thousands of years, and two very different concepts of gardens have existed in the East and West. The Chinese cultivated food and medicinal plants in enclosed garden areas four centuries before their Egyptian counterparts. Although both Egyptian and Chinese gardens were precisely designed, the visual effect of Chinese gardens was completely different from that of Mediterranean plantings. The Chinese were the first people to create true pleasure gardens and by 190 BC they were constructing extensive parks and public gardens. The Chinese considered landscaping a fine art interrelated with poetry and landscape painting, and conceived of the plants they used as symbolic rather than architectural objects (Simpson & Ogorzaly, 2001:409).
The idea of keeping plants in containers seems to have evolved from the development of ornamental gardens, of which the first were probably designed 5000 years ago for the palaces of the ancient Chinese civilisation (Simons & Ruthven, 1995:17).
The first true Western gardens were planted in ancient Egypt. Egyptian interest in botany and gardens is well documented in wall paintings and hieroglyphs drawn as early as 2200 BC. The Egyptians independently developed the concept of the garden as an enclosed space, they surrounded their houses with garden walls to keep out intruders and provide protection from desert winds. The geometric, stylised forms of the paths and planting beds were consistent with the formal architectural style of other forms of Egyptian art. In their search for plants to use in their gardens, the Egyptians organised the first plant-collecting expeditions (Simpson & Ogorzaly, 2001: 402-403).
The earliest plant hunting expedition recorded is one authorised by Queen Hatshepsuth of Egypt in 1495 BC. A party was sent to Somalia to bring back living plants of “incense trees”, possibly myrrh, Commiphora myrrha. The motive could have been for its economic rather than ornamental potential, but soon plants were collected for other reasons as well (Brickell, 2001:159).
The formal Egyptian garden concepts spread to Syria, Persia and other parts of the Western world. In Persia, autocratic rulers ordered their subjects to plant groves of trees that became pleasure gardens and hunting preserves. These gardens were the forerunners of modern public parks (Simpson & Ogorzaly, 2001:403).
The Roman Empire lasted long enough for the development of a distinctive style of garden art. They drew ample inspiration for their gardens from the tales brought back by soldiers from other parts of Europe, western Asia (the orient), and northern Africa (Simpson & Ogorzaly, 2001:405). The Roman Empire was an urban civilisation, and most of its citizens lived in large city apartments. By planting window boxes and painting flowers on courtyard walls, people brought nature into this new urban world. Wealthy Romans implemented garden designs to suit the grounds of villas outside the city and, for the first time, urban planners incorporated greenbelts into city designs.
As Rome prospered the cultivation of ornamentals thrived. When Rome fell in about AD 500 horticulture declined in Europe. For the next 600 years gardening in Christian Europe was confined to monasteries, where monks planted medicinal gardens and grew altar flowers (primarily lilies and roses) (Simpson & Ogorzaly, 2001:406). The Roman Empire and Mediaeval monasteries had spread medicinal and culinary herbs throughout Europe.
During the crusades (1095-1291) interest in gardening was rekindled in other parts of Europe. The French developed their own form of pleasure gardens in the 12th century, consisting of small gardens enclosed by walls and planted with beds of flowers, clipped hedges or even mazes of trimmed shrubbery often designed to enhance their function as places to entertain ladies (Simpson & Ogorzaly, 2001:406)
As the Renaissance slowly spread across Europe, the revival of classical ideas extended from the fine arts to gardening and landscaping. The Italians began to look at plants as architectural or sculptural objects that could add perspective to garden design. Plants were regarded as building materials to create outdoor corridors, vistas and plazas on Italy’s sloping hillsides. The French readily adapted Italian design to their flatter terrain, they produced elaborate formal gardens with a low, colourful display that consisted of masses of bedding plants arranged so as to form patterns. The most famous French gardens of this period are those of Versailles. In 1660 French gardening ideas crossed the English Channel and were emulated by the nobility of England. This swing towards natural expression was reflected in gardens that were reshaped with winding paths, water channels and thickets of trees and shrubs (Simpson & Ogorzaly, 2001:406).
Plants and ideas brought to Europe by explorers of the New World, Asia and Africa had a great impact on 17th century gardens. The wealthy began to maintain large private gardens in which to display new plants and animals. Public gardens such as the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew are legacies of this era. Many species were first formally described from live specimens growing in these gardens, and in a few cases (such as coffee), seeds from plants of exotic regions grown in European gardens, were used to start plantations far from their native homes. For the most part, however, exotic plants in these gardens were like rare animals in zoos (Simpson & Ogorzaly, 2001:406).
In 1722 Thomas Fairchild published The City Garden in which he mentioned a number of more unusual plants such as aloes (Simons & Ruthven, 1995:18-19). As far as can be traced, the first deliberate hybrid recorded was also developed by Thomas Fairchild (1667-1729), who crossed Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) with a carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus) to produce a sterile plant known as Fairchild’s mule. By 1800 the French plant breeder André Dupont was carrying out the hand-pollination of roses. For the most part, however, hybridisation, deliberate or unintentional, remained a haphazard affair until well into the nineteenth century, Mendel’s work led to a better understanding of the genetic principles behind plant breeding (Brickell, 2001:160).
The Cape of Good Hope was still largely an untapped botanists’ paradise, but 1772 was an important year in the annals of South African flora, marking the arrival of three notable men in search of botanical riches. Masson, a Scot from Aberdeen sent by Kew, and two Swedes, Sparrman and Thunberg, arrived in South Africa. With the new plant acquisitions from South Africa, Kew attained early pre-eminence in the botanical world. Later, Cape botanists started sending seeds and cuttings directly to Kew Gardens, who became the main propagators and hybridisers in the 17th and 18th centuries (Lighton, 1960:2).
The Victorians were experts of the potted plant. A change in the types of plants they kept came about in the 1850s with the introduction of gas lighting and cooking in urban homes. Hardier plants with tough, thick leaves were added to the existing collection to survive the toxic fumes of the gas. The Victorians also had fashions and crazes for plants such as ferns, and plants with coloured foliage. The houseplant fervour of the Victorian era cooled off in the early part of the 20th century, but hundreds of new hybrids appeared. In the 1930s the African violet rose to fame, and the post war 1950s saw house plants burgeon in many more homes (Simons & Ruthven, 1995:20).
In the 19th and early 20th century, the introduction of new plants reached a peak with thousands of new species arriving for cultivation in Europe from China, Japan, North and South America, Africa and Australasia (Brickell, 2001:160).
American gardens did not have their own character until the late 19th century, when the United States emerged as a major industrial power. Until that time, gardening in North America was mostly pragmatic or copied from the homelands of the many immigrants who flooded into the United States. Cities grew to sizes never before imagined. Some cities met the demand for natural areas within urban environments by incorporating public parks into city plans (Simpson & Ogorzaly, 2001:407). Many famous large city parks, in particular Frederick Olmsted’s Central Park, date from this period. Olmsted provided an environment of temporary escape from urban conditions and his vision led the American nation from the concept of isolated urban park to that of city and country as being a single design (Jellicoe & Jellicoe, 1995:281).
During the mid-1960s and onwards, with the worldwide development of horticulture, there were many changes in the industry. Several new ornamental plant breeding companies appeared, especially in the field of cut flower production (Cadic & Widehem, 2001:76). These changes took place after a long break during and after the 2nd World War, and were associated with the rising standard of life, and its demands, from the 1970s onwards especially in Europe. There was interest in Germany, but also in a number of other countries, in new ornamental plants, and especially in pot plants. Thus the search for, and development of new plants for these regions and their corresponding markets started anew (Von Hentig, 1998:65).
A brief history of gardening in South Africa
Introduction
The history of European settlement in South Africa begins with a garden. Jan van Riebeeck landed at the Cape in April 1652 with the aim of establishing a fresh food supply station and company garden for the ships of the Dutch East India Company en route to the East. Although a few indigenous, edible plants grew wild, he found virgin ground. It is with Van Riebeeck’s arrival that the story of gardening in South Africa begins (Rycroft, 1981:10). Already in 1655, with the arrival of the first apple trees imported from St Helena, the settlers started planting indigenous trees in a functional way, as hedges around gardens, to serve as windbreaks, and to keep out wild animals.
Along with his prodigious efforts to introduce fruit trees, Van Riebeeck was responsible for the successful introductions to the Cape of oaks, alders, poplars, pines and bay trees, as well as flowers such as carnations and tulips. The Cape’s first appointed gardener was Hendrik Boom, who set about establishing extensive gardens, planting vegetables and fruit and timber trees, as well as herbs and medicinal plants (Parker & Malone, 2004:18).
During the governorship of Simon van der Stel (1679-1699), the Company’s garden was expanded. It was composed not only of trees from abroad, but also included indigenous trees like Virgilia oroboides (Keurboom), Kiggelaria africana (Wild peach), Brabejum stellatifolium (Wild almond) and Leucadendron argenteum (Silver tree) (Rycroft, 1981:11).
The superintendent of the garden, Heinrich Oldenland, a Dane and a competent gardener, also began collecting local plants. The Governor sent live specimens and seeds of these plants to Holland.
The Governor Rijk Tulbagh apparently did not enlarge the Company’s garden, but during his tenure (1751-1771) it developed from a plain fruit and vegetable garden into the beginnings of a botanical garden, where indigenous plants of interest were also cultivated. The master gardener, Jan Auge, was sent by Tulbagh on several explorations of the interior to collect plants for the garden and also, presumably, for despatch to botanic gardens in Holland (Rycroft, 1981:12).
Francis Masson was the first prominent British collector. He recorded more than 750 undiscovered plant species and collected a range of plants that transformed Kew into one of the world’s greatest gardens. Cape flora such as ericas and proteas, the well-known Strelitzia and geraniums and diverse bulbs including ixias, freesias and gladioli, owe their international recognition to Masson (Parker & Malone, 2004:18).
Great Britain wrested control of the Cape colony from the Dutch in 1795. Subsequent to the second British occupation in 1806, Burchell, the noted English botanist and traveller, wrote that by 1810 the Government garden contained scarcely anything but vegetables, with some remnants of indigenous plants and trees. The private gardens at Rondebosch were found planted with a selection of imported plants. Some interest in indigenous plants was also apparent among these private gardeners as Calodendrum capense, Rothmannia spp., Strelitzia reginae, Vallota purpurea, Cyrtanthus obliquus and Aloe plicatilis were also cultivated. For the next 30 years the government garden remained much the same, except for Eucalyptus spp. and Oleander spp. that were introduced (Rycroft, 1981:12).
During the late 19th century, a few commercial nurseries were established at the Cape. Charles Ayres arrived in 1876 and established a nursery in Cape Town in the following year. In 1886 R. Johnson of Rondebosch advertised 20 000 rose trees for sale. Another pioneer nurseryman was Cape Town born Robert Templeman, who is reported to have started the first private commercial seed nursery at the Cape. He offered a range of seeds for vegetables, flowers and trees, including Blue gum and Hakea. He was awarded a gold medal at the South African Exhibition in Port Elizabeth in December 1885, for an exhibit of Cape bulbs and everlastings grown in his nursery (Rycroft, 1981:14).
CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale of the study
1.2 Statement of the main problem
1.3 Statement of the sub-problems
1.3.2 Sub-problem 2
1.3.3 Sub-problem 3
1.4 Hypothesis
1.4.1 Hypothesis 1
1.4.2 Hypothesis 2
1.4.3 Hypothesis 3
1.5 Research scope delimitations
1.6 Assumptions
1.7 Objectives
1.8 Research methodology
1.8.1 Introduction
1.8.2 Research Methodologies
1.8.3 Qualitative research methods used for this study
1.8.3.1 A review of the literature
1.8.3.2 Field research
1.8.4 Quantitative research methods used for this study
1.8.5 Summary of the research design
1.9 Importance of the study
1.10 Layout of the thesis
CHAPTER 2 – BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
2.1 Introduction
2.2 A brief historical overview of ornamental plant use
2.2.1 Introduction
2.2.2 The beginnings of plant utilisation as ornamentals
2.3 A brief history of gardening in South Africa
2.3.1 Introduction
2.3.2 The use of exotic and indigenous plants in South African gardens
2.3.3 Introduced cultivated plants
2.4 The value of ornamental plants
2.4.1 Introduction
2.4.2 Functional value
2.4.2.1 Microclimate enhancement
2.4.2.2 Airflow control and windbreaks
2.4.2.3 Air Purification
2.4.2.4 Erosion control
2.4.2.5 Screening
2.4.3 Psychological value
2.4.3.1 Healing, stimulation and inspirational value
2.4.3.2 Morals and ethics
2.4.3.3 Symbolic value
2.4.3.4 Intellectual needs
2.4.4 Aesthetic value
2.4.5 Economic value
2.5 Conclusions
2.5.1 Historical background
2.5.2 The value of ornamental plants
CHAPTER 3 – FACTORS INFLUENCING THE SELECTION OF NEW ORNAMENTAL PLANTS
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Environmental issues
3.2.1 Introduction
3.2.2 Urban greening and environmental horticulture
3.2.3 New plants from the wild
3.2.4 Invasive plants
3.3 Commercial competition for the horticultural use of South African indigenous plants
3.4 The domestication of wild plants
3.5 Sources of new ornamental plants
3.6 Natural attributes of plants
3.7 Ornamental plants in the commercial environment
3.8 Horticultural criteria for ornamental plants
3.9 Conclusion
CHAPTER 4 – THE SURVEY AND RESULTS OF THE SURVEY
4.1 Introduction
4.2 The Survey
4.3 Specific treatment of the main problem and sub-problems
4.4 The data and its interpretation
4.5 Conclusions
CHAPTER 5 – DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Selection criteria for the horticultural use of indigenous plants in South, Africa
5.3 Consumer knowledge and attitude towards indigenous plants
5.4 Consumers’ selection criteria for ornamental plants
5.5 Growers’ criteria for selecting ornamental plants
5.6 Industry trends and market possibilities
5.7 Competition and limitations to the utilisation of indigenous plants for horticultural purposes in South Africa
5.8 The sources for new ornamental plants in South Africa
5.9 Recommendations for further research
Addenda
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