Christina Goldbaum
ROBERT Stodel, owner of Stodel Nurseries and an icon in South Africa’s garden industry, died yesterday at the age of 73 from an acute lung disease.
“Robert has been a pioneer and trailblazer in the South African nursery industry for over 50 years,” Morne Faulhammer of South African Green Industries Council said.
“Not only was Stodel’s vision of creating a world-class garden centre chain realised, but he successfully managed to hand over the business to a second generation.”
Stodel arrived in South Africa from Holland at the age of 16 to work for a Dutch couple who were selling flower bulbs. He later started his own business selling flower bulbs imported from Holland door to door and on the Grand Parade with the vision of bringing gardening to all potential gardeners at prices they could afford. And that he did.
In 1968 he opened the first one-stop retail garden centre in Kenilworth where he provided gardening products at discounted rates, a concept completely new in the horticultural field.
He even guaranteed every plant sold – making Stodels the first and only nursery where gardeners can return a plant should it die.
Today Stodel’s nursery has become a multimillion-rand industry and the biggest garden centre in South Africa, with branches in Milnerton, Constantia, Somerset West, Kenilworth and Bellville.
“Robert Stodel’s ability, above all, to promote gardening to all, has left a legacy of environmental awareness throughout the Western Cape that can never be surpassed,” Faulhammer said.
Stodel received many notable accolades including the Green Ribbon Award for the best nursery in South Africa, the South African nurserymen’s Association Gold Medal for meritorious service to horticulture in South Africa, and the Marketer of the Year Award for excellence in marketing.
He will be fondly remembered by many in the gardening industry in South Africa as a pioneer in the gardening industry and environmental conservation.
The Cape Green Forum said: “In the years to come we will all hear much of the man who helped lay the foundation for the garden centre industry.”