Our Story
It started with a seed…
In 1995, our family bought an agricultural holding in the rural village of Hoekwil. A variety of palm trees were planted along the perimeter, including a group of Kentia Palms. These palms are resilient and hardy, despite their notoriously slow growth. Regal and elegant, they have no thorns to risk injury to animals and people. They also shed their own old leaves, neatly falling off whilst our other palm types often require time consuming and difficult pruning procedures. Even during the drier periods, the Kentia Palms keep their beautiful, lush green foliage. Our business began with propagation and developed into wholesale. Covid accelerated our vision and business model. Customers increasingly sought plants to bring life and joy to their living spaces. Today our Boutique Nursery is established in the Garden Route, delivering Kentia, Butia and Kentia Palms from Plettenberg Bay through to Cape Town
Photo Above: Parent stock Kentia Palms planted in 1995. (Not for sale.)
Photo Left: Hydrated Kentia Palm seeds ready for sowing.
After 15 years we witnessed our first Kentia Palm flower and later, seeds. Curiously, we watched these seeds hanging on the Kentia Palms as they turned from emerald to a robust red. This process took a few years. Almost for fun, a few of the red/ripe seeds were planted in one of the raised beds of the veggie garden. As weeks became months, and months became years, the seeds lay undisturbed and forgotten. It was a disappointing "fun" experiment to be sure!
Photo Left: Kentia Palm sprouting.
About three years passed since we planted our first Kentia seeds before they began to sprout. Suddenly one day we noticed a tiny and tightly closed frond appeared in the 'forgotten' veggie patch. We scratched our heads wondering what we could have been planted there, until finally realising that it was the Kentia Palm seeds. And so, an exciting opportunity began developing. We started attending to them again by providing regular watering and nutrients to the depleted soil.
Photo Left: Kentia Palm shoots.
As the Kentia Palm seedlings grew, we started transplanting the seedlings into deep grow bags and created a makeshift nursery lined with weed membrane in the shadow of our compost heaps. It has been almost two years since, and we still have a steady stream of tiny seedlings springing up from the original once 'forgotten' raised bed. We began harvesting further ripe seeds from our heavily laden Kentia Palm parent stock, hydrating them in clean water for a few days before planting into a good quality potting mix.
Photo Left: Small Kentia Palms.
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