About Us

What is Living Desert Plants?

Living Desert Plants is a home-based specialist plant nursery focusing on rare succulents and cacti. We are not a large nursery, and rather place our focus on succulents that are not generally available in retail nurseries. Much of our range is ethically sourced and propagated before being made available. At Living Desert Plants, you will find the weird and wonderful that you cannot find easily elsewhere.

Living Desert Plants found its roots as a hobby-turned-business created by Harry Lewis in early 2018. Harry was able to get the nursery up and running using valuable knowledge gained from his years as a nature conservationist. His respect and admiration for nature is at the core of our ethos. Therefore, we are deeply committed to ethical propagation and the conservation of South Africa’s unique flora.

We ensure that all our succulents are responsibly and artificially propagated, avoiding any harm to wild populations. By focusing on artificial nursery propagation, we not only protect biodiversity, but also provide our customers with healthy, well-acclimated plants. Many of the indigenous species we offer for sale are grown by ourselves from seed or propagations.

Where are we based?

Visitors are welcome to make an appointment any day of the week to visit the nursery in Stellenbosch. Harry is not always available, so be sure to contact him well before your planned visit to avoid disappointment.

If you are not in Cape Town or surrounds, we can courier anywhere in South Africa with The Courier Guy or PUDO.

All our plants are legal, nursery grown specimens. We will never offer plants removed from nature. We have been certified by Cape Nature as a registered Grower and Seller of Protected Flora since 21/05/2018 and have a good working relationship with conservation authorities in South Africa. We have valid, up-to-date permits to grow, sell and export indigenous flora and can provide these on request.

The Team

Harry Lewis

Founder and owner

A rare plant collector with a background in nature conservation, Harry has a passion for everything nature. He founded Living Desert Plants in 2018, and has been assisting avid succulent enthusiasts in finding special plants ever since.

- Elita F

Received my plants and came in excellent condition. Thank you for good service and for my lovely plants!

Not sure where to start?

When deciding which plants to buy, the most important consideration is where your plant is going to live. Different succulents need different light conditions.

Learn more about plants
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