On the seven acres of land around their Cape-Dutch styled homestead grow row upon row of proteas - South Africa's national flower.
A dentist by profession, Willie first thought of growing proteas for export as a retirement scheme and a hobby. Planting started with over 2,000 protea and leucadendron plants of several varieties.
"We planned to start it slowly. However, it was so exciting and had so much potential that it just took off with a huge bang."
Shortly, they will be adding another thousand new plants and concentrating on Annatjie's favourite plant, Silver Tree. The couple see real export potential for the variety in America, Europe and Japan but, with a three-year growing period, this is still some time off.
Meanwhile, with strong support from local flower growers, Annatjie is concentrating on developing local markets.
