Plant Trader, alternative yet natural

HAENERTSBURG – If you are into environmental friendly deterrents for insects and other bugs, consider a look at Plant Trader’s beauties.

“I’m passionate about my ‘little shop of horrors’,” states Lara Stanford (27) from Haenertsburg. She’s describing her carnivorous plant business Plant Trader.

Stanford, a former Stanford Lake College (SLC) learner, shares a gardening passion with Ryder McGaffin, also a former SLC learner, and her farmer partner of seven years. The lake as well as the school was named after her illustrious ancestor who built Stanford Lake College. After school Stanford obtained a B. Tech in surface design at the Cape University of Technology. The course involved multi-skills including creating user friendly and sustainable designs, product designs, computer programming and photography so that one could go out into the world and start a business. After studying for four years, she joined the prestigious Johannesburg firm Silvo Rech & Lesley Carstens Architecture and Interior as assistant interior designer. She loved designing custom pieces but not many of those gems came along due to budgetary restraints. Stanford then joined a city landscaping company in quirky Maboneng called The Living Room, for a year.

Stanford and McGaffin’s initial interest in carnivorous plants was ignited by Clayton Cook, a once local herpetologist, now living in KwaZulu-Natal. The couple began Plant Trader almost a year ago and now sell at fairs and outlets in Tzaneen and Polokwane. Stanford’s other passion is photography and she is often seen assisting a local Tzaneen photographer at weddings and other functions. Plant Trader sells Venus flytraps and sundews with hybrids coming out regularly onto the market. Carnivorous plants grow outside in South Africa but they can, if necessary, be brought inside near a window. They have different methods of digesting food. Some have fine hairs that trigger the plant and eventually only bug skeletons are left. Sundews have a sticky residue and when the light hits the dew buds the whole plant glistens in the sun. Insects are attracted to that. The plant curls up and eats them.

Then there are also Trumpet Plants and Monkey Cups. These have fluted trumpets with trigger hairs at the top. Insects get drunk from the scent, fall inside an enzyme enriched well that consumes the insect. “Cut that trumpet in the middle and the smell is terrible as it’s a pit of death,” the petite, soft-spoken Stanford smiles shyly as she utters these words.

Carnivorous plants go dormant in winter, conserve their energy underground and don’t eat as much. They’re used to bog conditions so need to be kept moist constantly. When potting plants, the medium must contain no nutrients, or else the plant will die. The plants get their nutrients solely from insects. Plant Trader uses non-treated sawdust as the planting medium. The initial outlay for carnivorous plants is very expensive but Plant Trader is slowly increasing its stock on McGaffin’s farm outside Haenertsburg.