Latest news with #KoosBekker
Business Insider
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
The world's richest people are pouring money into Africa's luxury resorts
A private island off Tanzania's coast, where guests pay around $50,000 per night for exclusive use of a villa, catamaran, and helicopter transfers inside a protected marine reserve, is emerging as the latest marker of Africa's fast-growing luxury hospitality market. According to a Bloomberg report, the resort is run by Dubai's Jumeirah Group LLC, part of the emirate's royal business empire, and reflects a broader surge of global investor interest in African tourism. From vineyard retreats to elite safaris and gorilla treks, billionaires, tech moguls, and Middle Eastern investors are turning their attention and capital toward Africa, now seen as one of the last untapped frontiers of luxury travel. Jumeirah has teamed up with the Swedish founders of Thanda Group to offer a private island escape off Tanzania and a Big Five safari experience in South Africa. Kasada Capital Management, backed by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, is expanding its footprint, eyeing deals in Morocco and adding to its 19-hotel portfolio across seven African nations. Meanwhile, Albwardy Investment, the firm behind Dubai's Desert Palm Polo Estate, is pushing ahead with developments in Zanzibar and Seychelles. It's a marked shift. Where African hospitality was once largely shaped by state-led initiatives, it's now being redefined by private capital, keen to meet a growing appetite for luxury experiences in untamed destinations. Billionaires are betting big Billionaires are increasingly drawn to Africa. For many, the cost of entry, from land acquisition to development, is significantly lower than in more established markets. Meanwhile, tourism numbers are soaring. In 2024, Africa surpassed pre-pandemic levels of international arrivals, welcoming 74 million visitors, according to UN Tourism. A 2024 Deloitte report on next-generation travellers forecasts that the Middle East and Africa will lead global growth in inbound tourism through 2040. Africa alone is expected to expand at a compound annual rate of 3.5% from 2019 to 2040, showing the region's long-term appeal. Virgin Limited Edition, the luxury hospitality brand founded by Richard Branson, has made Africa central to its strategy; over half its properties are on the continent, with more investments on the horizon. Others are following suit. Koos Bekker, the billionaire behind Naspers Ltd., recently opened his second ultra-luxury lodge in South Africa. United Africa Group, led by entrepreneur Haddis Tilahun, is in talks to acquire five high-end properties, while Club Med, backed by Chinese tycoon Guo Guangchang's Fosun, is preparing to launch a bush-and-beach resort in South Africa by next July.
Business Insider
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
The world's richest are pouring money into Africa's luxury resorts
Billionaires are increasingly drawn to Africa. For many, the cost of entry, from land acquisition to development, is significantly lower than in more established markets. Notable investments in African luxury travel include Richard Branson's Virgin Limited Edition and expansions by Kasada Capital Management. Global investors, including billionaires and Middle Eastern firms, are increasingly interested in African tourism due to untapped potential and cost efficiencies. The Jumeirah Group teams up with Thanda Group to develop high-end African destinations, such as private islands and safaris. A private island off Tanzania's coast, where guests pay around $50,000 per night for exclusive use of a villa, catamaran, and helicopter transfers inside a protected marine reserve, is emerging as the latest marker of Africa's fast-growing luxury hospitality market. According to a Bloomberg report, the resort is run by Dubai's Jumeirah Group LLC, part of the emirate's royal business empire, and reflects a broader surge of global investor interest in African tourism. From vineyard retreats to elite safaris and gorilla treks, billionaires, tech moguls, and Middle Eastern investors are turning their attention and capital toward Africa, now seen as one of the last untapped frontiers of luxury travel. Jumeirah has teamed up with the Swedish founders of Thanda Group to offer a private island escape off Tanzania and a Big Five safari experience in South Africa. Kasada Capital Management, backed by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, is expanding its footprint, eyeing deals in Morocco and adding to its 19-hotel portfolio across seven African nations. Meanwhile, Albwardy Investment, the firm behind Dubai's Desert Palm Polo Estate, is pushing ahead with developments in Zanzibar and Seychelles. It's a marked shift. Where African hospitality was once largely shaped by state-led initiatives, it's now being redefined by private capital, keen to meet a growing appetite for luxury experiences in untamed destinations. Billionaires are betting big Billionaires are increasingly drawn to Africa. For many, the cost of entry, from land acquisition to development, is significantly lower than in more established markets. Meanwhile, tourism numbers are soaring. In 2024, Africa surpassed pre-pandemic levels of international arrivals, welcoming 74 million visitors, according to UN Tourism. A 2024 Deloitte report on next-generation travellers forecasts that the Middle East and Africa will lead global growth in inbound tourism through 2040. Africa alone is expected to expand at a compound annual rate of 3.5% from 2019 to 2040, showing the region's long-term appeal. Virgin Limited Edition, the luxury hospitality brand founded by Richard Branson, has made Africa central to its strategy; over half its properties are on the continent, with more investments on the horizon. Others are following suit. Koos Bekker, the billionaire behind Naspers Ltd., recently opened his second ultra-luxury lodge in South Africa.
Telegraph
15-07-2025
- Telegraph
This cutting-edge Cornish attraction honours a forgotten British heroine
It's hot. It's dusty. We're sitting on the stoop of a South African farmstead wearing veldskoen and looking out over the plains. The coffee we're given tastes bitter, and the rusk is dry. But we are, in fact, in Cornwall – and it's all part of the experience at the county's newest immersive visitor attraction. The Story of Emily, tucked away in the quiet, rural village of St Ive (not to be confused with busy seaside St Ives), is rewriting the rulebook in this part of the world, where attractions are increasingly desperate to attract customers in what – post-Covid – is proving to be a tough tourist market. But here, you won't find pasties, ice cream, or any mention of Poldark. Instead, tourists who visit the Story of Emily are met by a sophisticated, tech-based, multi-sensory celebration of the life and work of Victorian social campaigner, Emily Hobhouse. The couple behind the project, Koos Bekker and Karen Roos, have already made waves in hospitality locations all over the world including the Babylonstoren wine estate in their native South Africa and The Newt in Somerset which, as the former Hadspen House, was the ancestral home of a branch of the Hobhouse family. Now in Cornwall, their signature flair and style has already attracted huge amounts of attention. 'We know we have created something very special,' says General Manager Martin Lovell, 'and our rapidly growing visitor numbers reflect this, as well as the very positive customer feedback which has been incredible to read.' The Story of Emily is not on the established tourist trail, however, and is miles from the sea, midway between the market towns of Callington and Liskeard. There are three main elements; the Hobhouse family rectory, its gardens and the War Rooms – a cleverly designed contemporary building clad in scalloped zinc. Inside the War Rooms, visitors are asked to change their shoes, given remote audio narration (plus, later, virtual reality headsets) and guided through a winding series of rooms. Precisely timed entry slots mean that the experience is almost completely personal (inside, on the fully booked day we visited, we were briefly aware of only one other couple). Using quite extraordinary cutting-edge installations, animation, film and original artefacts, visitors are transported in time and space to South Africa at the turn of the twentieth century and the Second Anglo-Boer War. With a strong social conscience, and already having established the South African Women and Children Distress Fund, Emily first travelled to South Africa in 1900 (visitors sit, like her, in a bumpy train carriage). There she witnessed the appalling conditions of the 'concentration camps' – the first time the expression had been used – in which women were kept with their children. The War Rooms doesn't shy away from other horrors as it tells the stories of vicious guerilla tactics and the British scorched-earth policy, as well as the massive number of casualties on both sides. Appalled at what she witnessed, Emily went on to work tirelessly, not only to improve conditions on the ground but, more particularly, back in England as a pacifist campaigner where she was labelled a traitor for petitioning parliament. In South Africa itself, however, she was, and is, thought of as a heroine; archive documentary footage shows thousands of people lining the route of her funeral. Back outside, elsewhere in the grounds, the Rectory where she lived with her family has been painstakingly restored to the way it would have looked in 1875, when she was 15. Audio headsets guide visitors through rooms in which designs from fragments of original wall paper, discovered during renovations, have been recreated and printed, entrance bells ring and the bed linen is starched. The Kitchen Garden, with its immaculate Victorian glasshouse, heritage vegetables and rare-breed turkeys, leads down to the restaurant. Here, completely unlike just about every other attraction in Cornwall, there's no suggestion of 'local produce', pasties, cream teas or even Cornish fudge. Instead, a menu of traditional South African recipes (albeit with modern twists) offers boerewors, ouma onder die kombers and roosterkoek, alongside a generous South African wine list. Such a development costs many millions of pounds: a brave move in a tourism climate which has seen two major Cornish attractions close within the past year. Dairyland, a farm-themed amusement park near Newquay, closed its doors last November after almost fifty years, having suffered a 'significant financial loss'. Equally, Flambards – a park of thrill and adventure rides which had been operating since 1976 – also closed its doors in 2024. Despite being the new kid on the block, its sister developments around the globe mean that the Story of Emily has an impressive tourism pedigree. Other Cornish attractions have become intrigued, and even Jon Hyatt, chair of Visit Cornwall, has referred to it as 'refreshing' and 'push[ing] new boundaries'. Its opening in May last year drew parallels with the excitement of the opening of the Eden Project in 2001. Back then traditionalists, who believed that Cornwall's visitors were content with a sandy beach and a cream tea, doubted that Sir Tim Smit's dream to tell a global story about man's relationship with plants would become reality. Millions of people have proved them wrong. The landscape of Cornish tourism is changing, and so are its visitors' preconceptions; now perhaps it's the Story of Emily's 21st-century technology, sophistication and humanitarian message that's pointing the way forward. The essentials A day ticket for the Story of Emily costs £12/25 child/adult (under fives free). Relaxed B&B Coombeshead Farm, a 25-minute drive from the Story of Emily, has rooms from £180 per night. The luxurious Pentillie Castle & Estate, a 20-minute drive from the Story of Emily, and has rooms from £2,035 per night.
Forbes
17-06-2025
- Forbes
It's Food For Thought At The Newt In Somerset
'The Newt is more than just a hotel, it's a legacy,' says Arthur Cole, head of programming at The Newt in Somerset, as he rumbles across picturesque farmland in a mud-splattered 4x4. Read any of the reviews of The Newt in Somerset, a Palladian house hotel, farm and garden, owned by hoteliers Karen Roos and her husband, Koos Bekker, (both also preside over Babylonstoren in South Africa), and you'll come across a whole raft of superlatives to describe it: astonishing, magical, charming... All of these—and more—are true: when you arrive, you soon realise that this is one of the most idyllic country house hotels in the UK, arguably in a league of its own, yet you won't find the team who work here boasting about it. Hadspen House at the heart of The Newt. When it opened in 2019, it did so quietly, with little fuss. This was despite the fact that there was no cost spared when it came to renovating the 17th-century Hadspen House, which sits at the heart of the estate, and the regeneration of the surrounding grounds (reportedly costing around £50 million). While the hotel garners rave reviews across the board, The Newt believes that the experience guests have, and the work it is doing on the land, simply speak for themselves. 'Yes, we are a finessed, luxury hotel, but we offer so much more than just a bed for the night,' says Arthur. 'Whether you come for the gardens, or the food [most of the ingredients used in the restaurants are sourced on the land], The Newt will still be evolving many years after I am gone. That's the plan, anyway.' The idyllic gardens are one of the highlights at The Newt. Found near Bruton in Somerset, The Newt in Somerset sits in some 800 acres of, yes, bucolic grounds. From its walled apple orchards, boasting 267 varieties of apples, to its sprawling kitchen gardens, with 350 varieties of fruits, vegetables and herbs, there's so much to explore that you'd be hard pressed to cover it all in a weekend visit. Exquisite flower gardens, spread across 30 acres, include colour-themed 'rooms' of red, white and blue blooms; while wildflower meadows reside next to those with roaming buffalo herds; there's a hidden grotto; a deer park,; an interactive Story of Gardening exhibit; a spa set amid herb gardens with nature-themed treatments; wild swimming ponds and even its own cyder-making facility… and that's just scratching the surface. Most importantly, perhaps, is the fact that The Newt sits within a true working farm, with some 522 people employed across the whole business, including farmers, conservation managers, gardeners, scientists, beekeepers, and woodsmen and women. It means that guests can get up close to an abundance of nature and wildlife. The Drawing Room at Hadspen House is a play on its Georgian architecture. 'We don't like to use words like 'sustainable',' says Arthur. 'Because what does it actually mean these days? It is an overused term that has lost its meaning. 'Regenerative' is probably the closest term that I would use to describe us.' To find out more about the depth of work at The Newt, guests can book a farm tour to see the native British White cattle, Dorset Down sheep, water buffalo and wild deer herds that graze on the land. 'Everything works in harmony,' says Arthur. 'They work their magic on the soil and create conditions in which pollinators and farmland birds can thrive.' Indeed, The Newt's land, woods, orchards and gardens are home to a wide range of wildlife and important habitats, including several species of reptiles, birds, and bats as well as, of course, the Great Crested Newt, for which the business is named. There's also a Beezantium, looked after by resident entomologist Thomas Oliver, which hosts thousands of bees, which roam around the estate, pollinating fruits, vegetables, flowers and crops. 'We are very conscious about what we do in terms of farming practices and our care for the land and wildlife. We see ourselves as caretakers of this little corner of England,' Arthur says. 'So, no insecticides are used; supplementary feed and bedding for cattle and dairy cows are home-grown and lambs are 100% grass fed.' Many of the herbs and vegetab les are sourced from the Produce Garden. He continues: 'We try and supply as much of the produce for the restaurants as possible, which means that estate-based food production and processing saves thousands of food miles each year and guests can taste the freshest Somerset produce. Grass-fed British White cattle and Dorset Down sheep provide the highest quality beef and lamb to The Newt's farm shops, restaurants and online customers across the region. The milling wheat grown on the farm provides the flour for the bread, biscuits, cakes, pasta and other amazing products that The Newt's bakers and chefs create. Water buffalos provide milk for cheese and yoghurts made on the estate at The Creamery.' Also part of the set-up is the futuristic Avalon butchery which, with its light-drenched, double-height space, feels more like an art gallery than a typical butcher's. 'It has been designed as a centre for excellence, not only for food production, but to give educational opportunities for budding butchers around the country,' explains Arthur. 'The facility is the sole supplier of estate-reared and locally sourced meat served across The Newt's restaurants and shops. With rare and heritage breed livestock born, raised, finished, and butchered on the estate, the butchery gives The Newt even greater control over the quality, provenance, and traceability of its meat. The Butchery aims to be a beacon for spotlighting British meat, raised and prepared in an uncompromising way. Alongside its butchery services, the butchery celebrates traditions once common across British country estates—from potting meats, to slow-smoking legs of mutton.' The Botanical Rooms showcases The Newt's produce. It's no surprise, therefore, that dining at The Newt is a highlight, with three restaurants to choose from. The elevated, glass-walled Garden Café immerses you in nature with its views over the walled orchard—the menu changes according to what has been picked from the gardens that day; while the Farmyard Kitchen features hearty fare and wood-fired cooking from an open kitchen. In the Botanical Rooms, found in Hadspen House, it's all about seasonal menus featuring the freshest ingredients from the estate—from buffalo mozzarella with white beans to estate venison, beetroot, oyster mushroom and walnut. Save room for the apple pie with cyder caramel and buffalo milk gelato, which is not to be missed, and make sure you order a glass of glass of South African Mourvèdre Rosé made on the sister-hotel Babylonstoren's estate. You can choose to sit in the oak-panelled dining room (cosy in winter) or in the glass extension, which feels like a Victorian orangerie with its potted citrus and olive plants. The Garden Room's design is a refined riff on the building's history. The Newt may be so much more than a hotel, but that's not to say it's not an exceptional one. You can choose one of 42 rooms which are found in Hadspen House, as well as carved out of historic outbuildings, and at The Farmyard. In the main house, bedrooms are thoughtfully designed, with a well-edited mix of antiques, stylish velvet chairs and simple four-poster beds. The interiors were conceived by Karen Roos, who was previously editor at South Africa's Elle Decoration. Needless to say, attention to detail is on point and full of character, with aged mirrors, Georgian silhouette art and glass bathroom cabinets filled with shells and bath sponges (like curiosities of old). It all works to complement the period details: panelled walls, fireplaces and original shutters of the Palladian house. One of the joys of The Newt is how it continues to innovate with new developments having been continually introduced since it opened. 'Many of us who work here were involved with The Newt from the beginning,' says Arthur Cole. 'We bought into what was an ambitious vision, but how it has developed has surpassed even our dreams. What's more, we're now taking The Newt's potential even further.' The spa garden immerses guests in nature. One of its recent big 'splashes' was the stunning recreation of a Roman villa within the estate, built after extensive Roman ruins were excavated. Visitors can now tour the visitor centre, take in the original foundations, and step back in time inside the reconstructed villa, which has hand-painted frescoes, artisan-made mosaic floors and working Roman baths. Its set in a vineyard (the hotel will soon make its own wine) and authentic gardens modelled on what the Romans would have grown. Last year, the team also opened The Creamery, a café, dairy and farm shop, found at the nearby Castle Cary train station, which has direct links to London. It stands as a reimagination of the original dairy facility that stood here, used by local farmers who would bring milk to be pasteurised before it was loaded on the milk train to London. Adding a new twist is this year's Maid of Somerset afternoon tea experience, set within a restored British Pullman carriage in the gardens. Originally built in 1921, the heritage rail car has begun a new life as a setting for the one-of-a-kind afternoon tea experience, featuring produce from The Newt (think: an almond, orange & cardamom cake with whipped coffee hang op—a soft cheese created by The Newt's head cheesemaker). Once serving as a First-Class parlour car on the legendary Thanet Belle route, the carriage boasts rich marquetry, geometric trellis motifs, and high-backed armchairs, upholstered in historic 'Autumn Tints' fabric. Glass-topped mahogany tables dating back to the 1920s, original brass fittings, and torch-style wall lamps complete the experience. Transporting guests to a bygone time, it's another example of The Newt's deftness of recreating magic from the roots of the past.
Times
19-05-2025
- Times
A succulent masterpiece at Chelsea Flower Show
The last thing you might expect to see at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is a family of South African quiver trees standing high over an escarpment of ancient stone and surrounded by very English show gardens — filled with fragrant tea roses, giant allium heads and sunset-hued bearded irises. This is the offering of the Newt in Somerset as it marks its last year as the flower show's headline sponsor. The gardening teams from both the hotel's Bruton estate and its South African sister hotel, Babylonstoren, have come together to bid the world-famous event a dramatic farewell. The Karoo Succulent Garden pays homage to the South African roots of the Newt's owners, the tech billionaire Koos Bekker and his wife, the former magazine editor Karen Roos, and its connection to the majestic Western Cape landscape that surrounds Babylonstoren. This was their first hotel — they now have six in their boutique group, including outposts in Amsterdam and Tuscany — which they opened in 2010 after buying and restoring an old farm and 17th-century Dutch Cape house located in the Franschhoek area of the Cape Winelands, an hour's drive from Cape Town. • Chelsea Flower Show 2025: 23 gardens to look out for For inspiration for the triangular 45 x 15m Chelsea garden, the Newt's estate architect Katie Lewis has taken cues not only from Babylonstoren's topography, but also from the nearby semi-desert eco region of Karoo. Here, many of the country's most beautiful and resilient succulents thrive against the odds of heat, drought and wind. Lewis has filled the garden with 'vignettes' of everything she saw while visiting the Karoo last summer, guided by the master botanists at Babylonstoren, Ernst van Jaarsveld and Cornell Beukes. Six biomes have been sculpted at different heights in layers of sandstone, shale and quartz to replicate the rocks the South African succulents nestle among. 'It all starts with stone since stone begets soil,' says Van Jaarsveld, a renowned ornamental horticulturist who joined Babylonstoren after four decades of curating the Botanical Society Conservatory at Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden in Cape Town. There are the 6,000 plants, including rare specimens from 15 plant families, found across the Cape Floral Kingdom region. A long winding path runs through the middle of the garden, 'like a dry riverbed,' Lewis says, allowing visitors to get closer to these otherworldly species. Elegant fan aloes and bushveld candelabras jostle alongside the 6ft-plus quiver trees (so named because the local Khoi and San people hollowed out the side branches to carry their quivers). 'I don't think the majority of people will know they are a succulent, not a tree,' Lewis says. There will be varieties of fragrant pelargoniums and an abundance of what Van Jaarsveld calls his favourite cliff 'huggers, hangers and squatters' (that is, succulents that either hug the cliff, hang from their stems or squat between the rocks). On lower levels, gem-like succulents in peculiar shapes such as horse's teeth, baby's toes and bunny heads sit on a shimmery bed of quartz. Meanwhile, handmade pots filled with eccentrically named succulents (spirals of slime lily and frizzle dizzle, cathedral window and fairy washboard haworthias, ox tongue and warty gasterias) hang from two faux quiver trees to show just how easy — and delightfully decorative — succulents can be to grow at home. • Ask Alan Titchmarsh: readers' questions ahead of Chelsea Flower Show 'People will recognise some of the succulents from ones they possibly grew on a windowsill when they were kids — like mother-in-law's tongue with its blade-like leaves, the yellow-flowered pickle plant and the lithops that camouflage themselves like small stones to avoid being eaten in the wild — and then there are ones that are fairytale weird,' says Lewis. 'Gorgeous but strange.' Many have been grown at the Newt or in nurseries around the UK and a couple were sourced from Italy. But the quiver trees were tenderly and protectively wrapped by Van Jaarsveld and Beukes before being flown by plane in the cargo hold from Babylonstoren to London. 'We just couldn't get them of that size and number locally,' Lewis explains. To see these fascinating plants in the heart of leafy Chelsea is one thing, but to experience them up close in the Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden was something else entirely. I visited in early February at the tail end of a long, hot, dry summer. Here we could see first hand what Van Jaarsveld calls plants 'shaped by suffering'. In South Africa's unforgiving arid climate, these plants have found ways to survive. 'Some have chemicals in their spines to ward off animals, others like euphorbia have toxins that sting and burn the eyes and throat, and others turn adversity to good use,' he explains. 'Instead of the plant dying, it goes into a kind of depression and then starts growing again.' That's why, he says, 'succulents make such wonderful house plants, because they're difficult to kill … except if you water them too much with kindness.' On walks, Van Jaarsveld and Beukes would point out white-spotted zebra wart succulents and pencil cactus euphorbia winding its samphire-like tendrils through water-hardy fynbos shrubs. The region's indigenous Cape speckled aloes (aloe microstigma) were all neatly tied up in parcels, their octopus-like leaves protecting the inner crowns from the heat, radiant in shades of blush pink and rusty red. 'In the summertime the aloes put a block on photosynthesis by producing the pigment that turns them into these beautiful colours,' Van Jaarsveld explains. 'For other succulents, like paper rose haworthias (a species identified by the 18th-century British botanist and entomologist Adrian Haworth), their dead leaves form a cover like a dress to protect the inner skin from both heat and hungry animals.' We looked out for the unusual local fauna such as rock rabbits (a bit like chubby guinea pigs), desert chameleons, spotted eagle owls and shrub robins. Delicate aster daisies grow wildly in the rock crevices and we marvelled at the fat, fleshy stems of butterbushes, so named because 'you can easily cut them up'. The red-edged pig's ear — also on show at Chelsea — is intriguing too. The juice from its leaves is useful for soothing mouth ulcers and insect bites, and even helps to remove warts. It is a magnet for songbirds seeking out the nectar in its brightly coloured tubular flowers in the autumn. Back at Babylonstoren, Van Jaarsveld and Beukes play 'father, mother and doctor, and sometimes fun uncle' to the tens of thousands of succulents in hand-coiled pots, made by the local artist Nico van Wyk, that line every surface and shelf in the estate's purpose-built succulent house. 'If they're sick we have to find a solution to make them happy again,' Beukes says. Tiny gecko lizards dart around the plants, encouraged by Van Jaarsveld as a natural form of pest control against the tiger moths whose eggs do irreparable damage when laid in the succulents. • Read more luxury reviews, advice and insights from our experts The botanists make an entertaining duo, especially Van Jaarsveld whose pockets are always full of seeds and cuttings as he walks around the estate in his hiking boots and floppy hat. Together, on adventures searching for new and interesting succulents in Namibia, Angola and Zimbabwe, they've fallen off cliffs and been bitten by snakes, but they have never been deterred. 'I was always interested in nature, growing succulents and aloes as a young man,' Van Jaarsveld says. 'If you love growing things, you will remain a plantsman all your life.' The Newt's Chelsea garden is timely, not only because succulents are increasingly popular for indoor gardening, but also in light of the urgent need to start bringing more drought-resistant plants into our homes and gardens, given a recent climate change study that revealed that London could feel as hot as Barcelona by 2050. Other gardens at this year's show designed by Tom Massey, Nigel Dunnett, Matthew Butler and Josh Parker are following a similar theme of raising awareness of waterwise plants and endangered species. After the show, the succulents will be relocated to the Newt to go on show in its winter garden. 'We want to champion the idea that there's a succulent for every situation,' Lewis says. 'It's about seeing something that's very common but evoked in its natural setting, as well as seeing something really unusual that you've never seen before.' She hopes, most of all, when someone stands in the centre of the Chelsea garden, 'that they will transported a little to the beauty of the South African landscape'. Van Jaarsveld adds, 'I know in Britain the rainfall is completely different, the vegetation is different, but I hope our garden will inspire people to learn more about how these small, tenacious succulents have learnt to survive and thrive.' And maybe we might take away a few life lessons in how to be a little more resilient in these uncertain times. The Karoo Succulent Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is open to RHS members from May 20-21, and the public from May 22-24. For more information and tickets, visit or
