New mural brightens up Gardens

MURAL artist Giffy Duminy recently completed painting a mural of indigenous Strelitzias. The art will form the backdrop to a Strelitzia garden which is in development at the Durban Botanic Gardens.

Martin Clement, curator of the Gardens, said the Strelitzia garden was inspired by the recent publication Strelitzias of the World by Prof Himansu ‘Snowy’ Baijnath and Patricia McCracken and published by the Durban Botanic Gardens Trust.

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“The idea was to turn the book into a garden experience for visitors. We toyed with the idea and the particular space for the garden, and have now converted the old Alien Alley educational space into the new garden. Strelitzia’s have a family relationship to cannas and bananas therefore the space was ideal. Nearby are bromeliads which are distant cousins to Strelitzias.

“We moved the cannas from the pond area to the space next to the Strelitzia garden as we wanted to reinforce the relationship aspect,” said Martin.

He said they had received some Strelitzias from Kirstenbosch Gardens and wanted to develop a special collection of Strelitzia plants in the garden. Giffy’s artwork was sponsored by the Botanical Society of South Africa KZN Coastal Branch (BotSoc). BotSoc is a member-based society whose mission is to know, grow, protect and enjoy South Africa’s indigenous plants.

“BotSoc plays a vital role in the Gardens and agreed to get on board and sponsor the mural and adopt the garden. This is the first time that a mural is being used as a backdrop in the Gardens and we are excited as it makes the garden more interesting,” said Martin.

BotSoc KZN Coastal Branch Chair, Suvarna Parbhoo Mohan, said they were always looking for an opportunity to promote indigenous plants across the Gardens and this was BotSoc’s third project within the Gardens.

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“I am interested in murals and had previously seen Giffy’s work. I chatted to our members about his work and looked for an opportunity to use his expertise in the Gardens. Jennifer Rampersad (horticulturist at Durban Botanic Gardens) gave us some options and when we saw the wall by the new Strelitzia garden we thought it would be a good opportunity to paint the mural there to tie in with this new garden,” said Suvarna.

Commenting on the opportunity, Giffy said he had met with Martin to speak about doing artwork at the Gardens and he had been contacted last year and asked if he would like to check this wall out for a potential mural.

“I love painting on bricks and I love Strelitzias so this was the perfect fit. I am so pleased with how the mural turned out, and it was an honour to be asked to paint this botanic mural by BotSoc and in the oldest botanic gardens,” he said.

Giffy painted four indigenous species of Strelitzia on the walls by the garden. “This feature artwork will brighten up the Gardens and hopefully catch the eye of visitors as they walk past. It will look stunning when there are plants in the new garden,” he said.

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