Adding a new species to our bulb list often requires more time and energy than one would imagine. Searching for a species that you have not seen before can sometimes take days of driving, hiking and searching and even then, the reward is not guaranteed, and you can end up unsuccessful. Because many of the species we offer are not available in the market, we have to get out in the field, find the plants, collect seed and cultivate them in our nursery. Typically, we need to research where the plant grows (which is often up a mountain that is hard to access), work out its flowering time as its impossible to find many species if not in flower, then make the necessary arrangements with the land-owner and get out there to find it. If we are successful in finding the plant in flower, the spots are marked for a return trip to collect seed when they are ripe, often up to a month later. During this time the flowers are under many a threat from wildlife like Dassies, locusts and grazing animals, and there have been times when we returned to find no sign of flower stems or seed.

In 2012 I had the urge to try and grow Cyrtanthus macmasterii, a special species for me because it was named after a good friend and mentor, Cameron McMaster, who had discovered the species a few years before. Together we set off to Quanti, where he had found it growing on the high slopes overlooking the Great Kei River. After a long hike we got to the spot and with much searching we managed to find seven plants in flower, which we marked with visible tape. I returned three weeks later to find most flowers had been eaten by locusts, but fortunately two of the plants had seed pods.

The fresh seed germinated well and 4 years later some plants flowered in the nursery for the first time. A treasured moment to share with Cameron, who happened to be visiting at the time. Those first generation plants produced a good seed stock and since then we have housed a viable population of this special plant, which we are now able to share with our customers. Our goal is to get as many viable breeding populations of rare bulbs under our nursery roof as possible, which is an important conservation aspect to the business.