Roumen Farms Wholesale Nursery is situated in the heart of the picturesque Georges Valley, Tzaneen, Limpopo, South Africa. It is essentially a commercial avocado and timber farm, with some mangoes, litchis and goats.
A hobby and intrigue for clivias, a passion for nature and gardening, led to the development of Hilton and Liza Atherstone’s wholesale nursery on Roumen Farms. The very first sale was four bunches of Alstroemerias from the farm garden to the local home industry in the late 1990s. This led to the beginning of the first cut flower terraces and subsequently the landscape and nursery terraces. Cut flowers are still grown on the farm for the local market.
Hilton Atherstone bred and developed the now extensive Clivia collection which features numerous new hybrids and award-winning plants. Two additional clivia breeding shade houses were erected in 2019, and now house the latest breeding seedlings.
The beautiful farm garden, graced by thousands of clivia hybrids, provides a perfect breeding ground for their commercial clivia stock. The garden clivias are upgraded seasonally, to ensure quality seed reaches the landscape nursery. Many clivia enthusiasts have commented that they would only dare display such beautiful clivias in their shade houses! With shade at a premium, the garden Clivias rapidly expanded to a plantations adjacent to the home and nursery. The plantation provides thousands of quality plants for the keen gardener, landscaper and retail outlets. Clivia seeds (orange hybrids) are also available seasonally in bulk, with harvesting starting around end of May/June each year.
Providing added interest in the sunnier areas of the gardens, nestling amongst various ornamentals, are a variety of beautiful agapanthus, alstroemerias and American daylilies hybrids. Spring and summer are a riot of colour.
In order to 'bridge gaps' between Clivia seasons, the nursery has expanded considerably since 2006 to include various ornamental and indigenous plants.
Landscape Options Available
Roumen Farms Wholesale Nursery takes pride in their service and capacity to produce quality plants at competitive prices, for distribution throughout South Africa via online sales. Plants are carefully removed from the landscape terraces and trimmed where appropriate before packaging in boxes. Refer the Price List for OPEN GROUND OPTIONS. Landscapers can collect on site by prior arrangement.
Please note that, for farm security reasons, visits to the nursery are strictly by appointment only.
Durantas: Shrubs, topiary short balls and standards
Agapanthus *: Mini white and blue, medium blue, large blue and white, inapertus
Euphorbia *: Firesticks, tirucalli, trigona, monadenium
Dietes *: Bi-colour, grandiflora
Carissa *: Green carpet
Tulbaghia *: Violacaea, silver lace, fragrant white, fragrant lilac
Succulents *: Spekboom *, crassula *, sedums, echeveria, kalanchoe humilis *
Grasses *: Red ribbon, zebra grass, mondo grass, chlorophytum comosum * and saundersiae *
Clivias *: Orange, orange red, red, bronze, yellows, pastels, etc.
Daylilies
* Indigenous to Southern Africa
- Red spider, white fly and thrips thrive in hot dry periods. Red spider hides on the underneath of leaves and is often noticed once it is too late and has moved on to the next plant.
- The amaryllis worm, in particular, can be a nightmare to Clivia growers. They may also infest agapanthus in certain areas. The eggs are laid on the underside of the leaves and the newly hatched worms eat in a tunnelling fashion through the leaf, eventually reaching the corm of the plant. The worm burrows into the centre of the plant, where it hides and eats undetected, often resulting in the plant appearing to “wilt overnight”! If the infestation is not detected timeously, the entire plant can rot.
- Plant Crinums can be planted in close proximity to your Clivia and agapanthus garden. The amaryllis worm usually eats the Crinum before it migrates over to the clivias. Plants may recover if detected early enough and treated accordingly: remove the infested clivia from the ground if infestation extends into the corm, wash thoroughly, trim off infested leaves, drench well with fungicide and leave clivia to dry out for few days in shaded position. Best to replant in different area if possible (or a pot) and drench the soil in the affected area with fungicide.
