Entering from the Visitors' Centre, this is the first area of the Gardens that you will see. The route follows the main path, curving upward and into the various gardens. Along this route you will find: the new restaurant garden area, beds of Annuals and Vygies, the Main Pond, the Medicinal Garden, the Useful Plants section, the Pelargonium Koppie and the Fragrance Garden.

The Kirstenbosch Restaurant

The Kirstenbosch Restaurant is situated adjacent to Ficus Avenue, which borders the Visitors' Centre. The building houses two restaurants: a family oriented self-service cafeteria - The Fynbos Restaurant, and an a la carte restaurant, the Silver Tree. Both have magnificent views of the Garden and Table Mountain. The Fynbos Restaurant has an extended outside deck which overlooks the river. The restaurant is an outsourced facility. For more information, please contact them directly at Telephone (021) 762 9585 or Fax (021) 762 9625.

Annuals

Many visitors specially visit Kirstenbosch during the spring months from August to October to see our fields of Namaqualand daisies. The annuals fill the Garden with energy as they open their faces to follow the sun. Large areas, especially in the lower part of the Garden, are planted with different colours ranging from brilliant white, soft peach, intense orange and yellow to striking blue and mauve. It is mostly the daisies, like Dimorphotheca, Felicia, Osteospermum, Ursinia and Gazania, which create the sheets of flowing colour. Look closer to see many other annuals like the Bokbaaivygies (Dorotheanthus bellidiformis) and the blue flax (Heliophila coronopifolia). These annuals have a short life and set seed before the hot dry summer arrives.

Vygie Beds

A kaleidoscope of colour in October when these small unassuming succulent shrubs transform into mounds of brilliant pinks, purple, magenta, yellow and white. They are members of the Mesembryanthemaceae family.

Main Pond

In the shade of a majestic old oak tree is the Main Pond, containing blue water lilies and waterblommejies, and pink crinums at its edge. Set in the centre of a large lawn, it commands sweeping views of the mountain. It is fed via cobbled streams by the natural spring that bubbles up in the Dell. At the top of the lawn stands a magnificent old yellowood tree whose branches hang down to the ground forming a 'cave'. This area of the Garden is particularly popular with family groups.

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