Indigenous Nursery News Blog

Random Harvest celebrates 25 years in business as an indigenous plant nursery in October of this year.

We are delighted that Elsa Pooley is part of our exciting programme of events for this month.

Her extensive knowledge and love for indigenous plants has meant that we are able to offer you, our customers, a wide range of quality events to spend time with Elsa and learn more from her about our amazing indigenous flora and making the most of it in garden landscaping ideas.

Events by Elsa Pooley at Random Harvest Indigenous Nursery

• 13, 14, 15 October Landscaping with Indigenous Trees - Exclusive to landscapers and wholesale plant industry
• 17 October Tree walk and Talk
• 17 October Indigenous Tree Identification Workshop
• 18 October A celebration of Indigenous Flowers

A bit about Elsa Pooley

Elsa Pooley is the author of a number of best selling field guides on South African wild flowers and trees.

Through the KZN Flora Publications Trust, she has published the following books (some of which are on sale at Random Harvest):

• The Complete Field Guide to the Trees of Natal, Zululand and Transkei (1993)
• A Field Guide to Wild Flowers of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Region (1998)
• Mountain Flowers: A Field Guide to the Flora of the Drakensberg and Lesotho (2003)
• Forest Plants, in the forest and in the garden (2006) 

Currently Elsa conducts specialist botanical tours in Southern Africa and runs a very busy indigenous landscaping and rehabilitation company in KwaZulu-Natal. Some of the projects that she is involved in are:

• Landscaping and rehabilitation consultant to the eThekwini Durban Beachfront Upgrade.
• Landscaping consultant to Crookes Bros. Ltd (CBL) at the Renishaw Head Office and Estate, and Crocworld, Scottburgh.
• Environmental Control Officer (ECO) and garden designer at Eden Rock Forest Estate, Pennington.

Apart from the above, she is also an accomplished artist, and runs popular botanical art courses with Gillian Condy at the Cavern Berg Resort.

Elsa Pooley was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2008. She won the prestigious Marloth Medal of the Botanical Society of South Africa (2004), and was awarded the Certificate of Merit for Outstanding Contribution to Botany by the SA Association of Botanists in 1999. She was the KZN Wildlife and Environment Society's Conservationist of the Year in 1996.