South African proteas farms prepare for summer rush

(18 Dec 2008)
AP Television
Western Cape, South Africa, 19-21 November 2008
1. Medium Pink pincushion proteas on Table Mountain
2. Medium yellow proteas with grasses
3. Close up yellow proteas
4. Medium pink proteas bush with mountain background
5. Close up yellow protea
6. Close up small while proteas
7. Close up (from below) protea stems and sky
8. Wide Kirstenbosch Gardens heritage site sign and mountain
9. Close up Kirstenbosch Gardens heritage site sign
10. Man (Tony Rebelo) walking down garden path
11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dr. Tony Rebelo, South African National Biodiversity Institute:
"A feature of the protea family are these pollen presenters, and the fact that we've got a big head consisting of lots of flowers. In this case, there are almost about 100 flowers in a single head."
12. Medium Proteas in garden with sign
13. Close up King Protea sign
14. Medium King Proteas (old and new)
15. Wide, Stellenbosch valley from Protea Heights Farm
16. Medium Protea Heights entrance
17. Wide protea "crops"
18. Medium worker cutting stems
19. SOUNDBITE: (English) Jenny Poval, Protea Farmer:
"All of our flowers are sold to exporters, primarily one exporter, and that exporter primarily ships to Holland, and some of the flowers might go to the auction in Holland, but I think most of them find buyers throughout Europe, Eastern and Western Europe, right now."
20. Medium women workers trimming stems
21. Close up workers' hands trimming stems
22. SOUNDBITE: (English) Alfred Williams, Farm Worker:
"These are the Ivy, and we're breaking out the side shoots, this is what the women are doing here, so you get all the energy goes into that flower head, and makes a much bigger bloom."
23. Medium long stems and blooms
24. Wide inside production shed, buckets of proteas and workers
25. Medium workers using machine to strip leaves
26. Medium workers clipping leaves
27. SOUNDBITE: (English) Alfred Williams, Farm Worker:
"From January on, end of December, January, February, March, that is our peak season, we pack up to thousands and thousands - say up to 5, 10,000 a day."
28. Close up workers clipping leaves
29. Medium workers bundling bunches
30. Medium packing boxes
31. close up packing flowers in box
32. SOUNDBITE: (English) Jenny Poval, Protea Farmer:
"The slower season obviously is winter here, and now it really starts to kick in and we're gonna be picking flowers everyday, and probably shipping, at our peak, maybe 600 boxes in a week."
33. Wide proteas and mountain
34. Close up pincushion protea
35. SOUNDBITE: (English) Charles Lehmann, Swiss Tourist, Vox pop:
"When we arrived three weeks ago and we went to the cape, and many of them were in full, how do you say, bloom? And it was really great to look at."
36. Medium protea bushes
37. SOUNDBITE: (English) Pam Wilkins, British Tourist, Vox pop:
"The size of the King Protea, cause I've seen photographs of that, but until you actually see it, and you can put it against a hand to you know, really get the scale of it, I think that was really the big surprise."
38. Close up King Protea
39. SOUNDBITE: (English) Fernanda Palacio, Brazilian Tourist, Vox pop:
"I can't imagine it was so big! It's very different, we don't have any flower like this in Brazil, I think."
40. Wide flowers for sale and Kirstenbosch sign
41. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ian January, Proteas Seller:
"I grew up with the flowers, and I love my flowers, that's why I'm doing it. And I like to satisfy my customers. We have a lot of customers."
42. Wide King Protea and mountain
43. Close up King Protea
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