Although it grows readily from cuttings and thrives in containers, also flowering soon, the plants rapidly die when planted out in similar habitats. In spite of several attempts to grow the plants at Kirstenbosch, no success has been achieved even when planted next to strong flowing streams.

Cuttings root rapidly in a sandy mixture under mist propagation during spring and summer. Attempts are now under way to graft stock onto closely related, but easily grown Bowkeria or Anastrabe species from the northern and eastern parts of South Africa and once achieved will be released into gardens (see grafting below).

It is best grown as a container plant. Due to its acidic sandstone habitat the plants are best grown in a fynbos potting mixture (a quartzitic sandstone-based, well-drained mixture). For best results, water frequently during the dry summer months.

Grafting and budding:

Why do we graft or bud a plant? Not all plants are easy to grow and especially those confined to specialized habitats such as a fast flowing streambank. Also some have weak or disease-prone rootstocks. When a useful or attractive (agricultural or ornamental horticultural) plant is difficult to grow on its own rootstock (such as the river bells), grafting is often the answer. By using a closely related plant which is better able to cope with conditions in cultivation as a stock or host plant, the problems associated with growing the plant are sometimes overcome.

Examples include various fruit trees and other ornamentals such as roses and many other tree and shrub species. Success has been achieved with the rare and difficult to grow indigenous marsh rose, Orothamnus flabellifolius, which has successfully been grafted onto Leucadendron conocarpodendron. The impala lily, Adenium multiflorum, from dry, subtropical and tropical regions in Africa has been grafted onto Nerium oleander in Europe. The author has also successfully grafted plants of the large-leafed spekboom, Portulacaria armiana, onto the spekboom, P. afra.

Grafts are usually performed with a close relative or at least a member of the same family. Many difficult members of the stapeliad family have been grafted onto Ceropegia woodii rootstock with great success. There are various methods of grafting or budding. In the latter a single bud is transferred into a slit made into the bark of the host and the bud slipped in, and covered with plastic wrapping. Grafts are made with shoots of the desired plant inserted into slits in the stock plant and held in place until the bark/outer layer of both plants has grown together.