Newsletters

Newsletter

September 2001

After concerns about drought, we have had good rains in the last three months. However, this was not the case in other production areas where drought conditions gave cause for grave concern regarding total availability of product. At last those areas have now had their first rains, coinciding with one of the worst storms the Cape Peninsula has experienced in the last 100 years. Extremely high seas have resulted in a number of shipwrecks and the storm has of course played havoc with shipping schedules. Modern technology is quite something - the weather bureau measured the highest wave ever recorded, a 17 meter monster. Trees were blown over, and a number of the shacks in the informal settlements on the Cape Flats near Cape Town were submerged under water. Aid for these unfortunate people has been pouring in.

Our farm manager, Willie Maritz, has been planting many Repens and Compacta plants. Experiments with nutrition and weed control are showing excellent results, giving good quality flower heads. Honingklip farm has produced over a quarter million Repens this last season. Repens and Compacta flower production has now come to an end. In spite of the dry conditions elsewhere, we have managed to obtain sufficient good quality Repens to carry over stock into early 2002 for those of you who may require further quantities before harvesting starts again next year April.

We have already started harvesting for rosettes. On the production side, our staff are having to work overtime to keep up with drying, sorting and packing in order to get the products shipped in time for the European autumn/winter demand.

Earlier this winter we were concerned about the low level of our dams and now they are overflowing copiously, with more rain predicted. All the rain and cold of the last few weeks has naturally delayed drying, and our electric driers are working overtime. We even put our ancient diesel driven drier back into service to cope with the huge volumes of material waiting to be dried.

At last spring is now finally arriving with watsonias coming into bud and the indigenous daisies in full bloom in our private nature reserve, Ruwami, on top of our mountain. Down below the first pincushions are in bloom. But, the weatherman is predicting more rain.

Pretty soon the Everlastings or "Capblumen" should be coming into flower, followed by a brief harvesting window. If you think you many need some in the coming year, now is the time to place your order so that we can ensure that we get sufficient stock.

On 1st December we will be converting all the DEM prices to Euro's. Thank goodness for modern computer technology, which makes recalculating everything so much easier.