Several of the pictures accompanying this article show a tree growing in the Lowveld National Botanical Garden, Nelspruit. Visitors to Mpumalanga and the Kruger National Park are urged to make a detour to see this garden, which in this author's opinion is one of the country's best beauty spots. Those interested in seeing the creative use of poison bride's bush in a garden should look at the vegetation screening the gents' toilet just to the left of the main entrance (and very visible from the car park near the plant sales area). The main element of this screen is the tree in the picture below.

This indicates that one possible use for Pavetta schumanniana in even quite small gardens is to hide an unattractive feature such as a wall or a shed. Other species of Pavetta are known to attract birds to the garden, and there is no reason to suppose that this one will not do so. Because the leaves are poisonous, trees should not be planted where they may tempt browsers.

The poison bride' s bush is well suited to warm areas with frost-free winters and moderate rainfall, such as the Lowveld of Mpumalanga. In areas where frost is experienced, it will require some protection, and may not survive excessive cold. Where the natural rainfall is low (say below about 500 mm p.a.) trees will require supplementary watering, which may suggest that you should grow hardier plants instead. That the natural habitat of this tree includes rocky outcrops and termite-mounds indicates that while it will survive in shallow, stony soil, it is well able to make good use of deeper, richer soils.

It appears that this is one of many quite desirable indigenous species that is not normally available from nurseries. Keen gardeners will therefore have to grow it from seed collected in the field (with the landowner's permission, please!). Geoff Nichols, the well-known Durban grower of all things indigenous (to whom many thanks for what follows), tells me that seed should be extracted from fresh fruits, washed and sown while still wet. Use a well-drained, sandy mixture of potting soil, and expect germination in two to four weeks-possibly a little faster if you keep the soil warm. Geoff believes that most species of Pavetta are mycorrhizal (require root fungi to grow, like orchids), and so seedlings will grow better if you add a small quantity of soil from around the roots of an existing bride's bush to the potting mixture. In any event, growth from germination to flowering is likely to be slow.

As there appears to be only one tree of this species "in captivity", nothing is known about its pests and diseases.

Other pavettas sometimes grown in gardens include P. lanceolata and P. gardeniifolia .