Viewing and flower tours
The Namaqualand flower route
A spring drive up South Africa's dry west coast, where winter rain turns bare ground orange and white with daisies.
Presented by ClearTrust Free for gardeners, florists, travellers and the curious.
Namaqualand is a semi-desert in the north-west of South Africa. For most of the year it is brown and stony. If the winter rains are good, August and September bring wide sheets of daisies and a huge variety of bulbs and succulents. South Africans drive north from Cape Town to see it, and the journey has become known as the flower route.
What it is
The show is made mainly by annual daisies in orange, yellow and white, which grow thickest on old ploughed fields and disturbed ground. Among them are bulbs, small succulents called vygies with glossy flowers, and many plants found nowhere else. The usual stops are the Skilpad section of Namaqua National Park near Kamieskroon, Goegap Nature Reserve at Springbok, and Nieuwoudtville, known for its bulbs. Closer to Cape Town, the Postberg section of West Coast National Park opens only in flower season.
Why it happens
This is a winter-rainfall desert. Rain falls between May and August, light but fairly dependable, and plants must flower and seed before the summer drought. Annuals germinate after the first rains and bloom as the days warm. The season starts in the north in late July or early August and moves south, reaching the Cape west coast in late August and September. A dry winter or a hot wind from the interior can cut it short.
How to see the flowers
The daisies open only in sunshine, roughly from mid morning to mid afternoon, and stay shut on cold or cloudy days. They also turn their faces to the sun. For the full effect, travel and look with the sun behind you. In practice that means driving north early and viewing as you come back south. Local tourism offices run flower hotlines that say where the display is best that week.
How to take part
- Go between early August and mid September, and call or check a flower hotline before choosing a route.
- Book rooms months ahead. Small towns fill up in season.
- Be among the flowers between about ten and four on a sunny day.
- Get out of the car and walk the short trails. The small plants are missed from the road.
Good manners
- Do not drive or walk across flowering fields. Many are private farms.
- Leave bulbs and succulents where they are. Plant poaching is a serious problem here and is a crime.
- Pull fully off the road before stopping to take photographs.
The flowers
Glandular Cape marigoldA spring-blooming daisy from southern Africa with orange or yellow flowers
ArctotisA group of daisy-like flowers from southern Africa grown for their bright blooms
UrsiniaAfrican daisy relatives with toothed leaves and round flower heads
LachenaliaBulbous perennials from southern Africa, often called Cape cowslips
MesembryanthemumA southern African succulent with sparkling, long-lasting flowersAlso part of it, and being written: Gazania.
Sources and further reading
Original text by the Phool desk, written with AI assistance. Customs vary from place to place. If we have something wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Ursinia: Winfried, Public domain, source
- Lachenalia: Kristine Paulus, CC BY 2.0, source
- Mesembryanthemum: Tigerente, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Arctotis: Alvesgaspar, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Glandular Cape marigold: Winfried Bruenken ( Amrum ), CC BY-SA 2.5, source