Given our recent killer cold weather, I obviously don't have anything from my garden to put in a vase this week. It's even been too cold to try to get flowers from the grocery store to the car to home without damaging them. But I've had this "vase" ready to pull out when I needed it and that time has come.
One of our good friends accepted a job transfer from Madison to Cape Town, South Africa. He and his husband were home a few months ago for a friend's wedding and brought us this gift when we got together. We are all gin drinkers (mostly Martinis) and like to try different types. Fynbos, meaning fine-leaved plants, is a small belt of natural shrubland vegetation in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The area is described as mainly winter rainfall coastal and mountainous areas with a Mediterranean climate.
According to the blog, Notes from a Cape Town Botanist (and Wikipedia), Fynbos is known for its enormous diversity of species from several families: Restionaceae (restiads and restios), Proteaceae (Protea, Banksia, Grevillea, and a few others), Ericaceae (heaths and heathers), Rutaceae (rue or citrus) and Iridaceae (freesias, gladioli and crocuses to name a few). Table Mountain alone — which overlooks Cape Town — has more plant species than the entire British Isles. The Fynbos Biome has more than 9,000 species of plants within an area the size of Portugal. Two thirds of them occur nowhere else on earth!
Cape Fynbos Gin has "elements from more than 30 indigenous botanicals, sustainably hand-harvested for their bark, roots, berries, flowers, stems, peels or leaves." It prides itself on being hand-crafted, small batch and copper distilled" as well.
It's a lovely reminder of our absent friends, an excellent gin and it's in the most beautiful packaging I've ever seen for a bottle of booze. All those images of plants on the label, nicely named in Botanical Latin, are a magnet for a gardener.
To see what other gardeners have found to put in a vase today, jump on over to Rambling in the Garden where Cathy hosts this weekly floriferous meme.
Love the bottle! So many great plants from the Fynbos, a few of which survive in my garden. After the warmest January on record, we're having snow coming in sideways and below freezing temperatures. On the bright side, schools are closed and I have a day off.
Posted by: Peter/Outlaw | Monday, February 04, 2019 at 10:17 AM
That's wonderful!
Posted by: Loree / danger garden | Monday, February 04, 2019 at 10:54 AM
We went from -28 when we woke up Thursday morning to 43 when we got up on Sunday morning. Now it is raining and I am worried all my snow cover may disappear. Weather rarely does what we gardeners want it to do.
Posted by: Linda Brazill | Monday, February 04, 2019 at 10:55 AM
What a great fallback for a Monday vase. Lovely and interesting.
Posted by: Susie | Monday, February 04, 2019 at 11:07 AM
Gosh, you have shared some intersting facts about South Africa and the concept of Table Mountain having more plant species than the UK is astonishing! It is such a pretty bottle as well and although I haven't drunk gin in years I am really curious about all these new botanical ones coming out and would be curious to try one
Posted by: Cathy | Monday, February 04, 2019 at 11:28 AM
That may be the prettiest liquor bottle I've ever seen! I don't know if you follow Diana's blog, Elephant's Eye on False Bay, but she routinely shares photos taken in her own garden and the wild of all those wonderful plants that grow in South Africa. I'd previously read that the country was the source of the world's most diverse botanical ecosystem but her posts each month affirm the fact. While I can grow a lot of those plants I covet all of them that have yet to enter trade in the US.
Posted by: Kris P | Monday, February 04, 2019 at 12:37 PM
Wow, the bottle is worth the price! and the box. I hope you stay safe and warm, the temperatures were truly frightening.
Posted by: Amelia Grant | Monday, February 04, 2019 at 04:25 PM
This is my favorite IAVOM ever.
Posted by: Nell | Monday, February 04, 2019 at 07:17 PM
That's an awesome label, and I can only imagine what the gin tastes like. I'm not a big gin drinker, but that would be one to try. Lovely for decorative purposes, too.
Posted by: Beth @ PlantPostings | Monday, February 04, 2019 at 10:10 PM
So glad you have enjoyed the gin and that it served (and continues to serve) as a reminder of us while we are away in South Africa.
Looks like the bottle is running a little low, though. We will need to plan a trip back to Madison soon.
Posted by: Peter | Monday, February 04, 2019 at 10:58 PM
Cin Cin! I love a Martini too so I was most interested by your beautiful bottle. When the weather is so cold, a little spirit is just the right thing. I hope your weather improves soon and you have some blooms to pick.
Posted by: Christina | Tuesday, February 05, 2019 at 07:08 AM
Very nice review of fynbos, the geographic area; and photos of the content of that mysterious box!
Posted by: Greg A Miller | Tuesday, February 05, 2019 at 10:19 AM
Now that is a vase I could really get into. Not only that but the flowers depicted are so charming. I see several on there that Kris and Hover Boo have in their gardens. Crazy. Wouldn't it be fun to go over there and have a look around. More winter dreaming...More likely I would be lucky just to find a beautiful bottle of that gin.
Posted by: Lisa at Greenbow | Tuesday, February 05, 2019 at 11:05 AM
That is so lovely! Those botanical pictures are great! I used to drink gin too, and am intrigued by the ingredients in this one. Has the bottle been opened already? ;-)
Posted by: Cathy | Tuesday, February 05, 2019 at 01:35 PM
The bottle has been opened and the gin is very nice. We’ve grown rather fond of botanical-flavored gins.
Posted by: Linda Brazill | Tuesday, February 05, 2019 at 04:20 PM
Well, I haven't had a gin and tonic since college, but this gin sure looks yummy! I might even have to put the Fynbos Biome on my bucket list. Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Karen @ Lady of LaMancha | Friday, February 08, 2019 at 03:51 AM