08 Aug 2021

Scenic beauty of nature has a healing effect. 

Therefore, experiencing a cool breeze, sounds of bees and other insects flying around the open spaces from a colourful flower to the next bring a feel of relief and comfort to the mind. 

Such peace of mind can be enjoyed by either strolling or resting in a garden, park or forest.  

It is for this reason that Ms Esther Mogorosi (63) ventured into a flower garden at Makolo ward in Serowe. 

Her garden has a charm for the young and old. The garden boasts of diverse colours such as white, pink, red, yellow, oranges, purple and green. 

Red rose towering above yellowish and greenish flowers, together with other plants make the natural scenic beauty of  the garden stands out.

In an interview, Ms Mogorosi said nature and its beauty brought peace and stability especially to some experiencing life challenges. 

She said her love for flowers and plants was from a tender age, stating that she first started growing vegetables at her parents’ home. 

As her passion with flowers grew, she found a niche in bloom called Coleus. 

She planted the attractive bloom, which she sold for P2 to teachers.

Since then she never looked back and started selling different flowers as well  as decorating plants, which she collected from the forest and from peoples homestead. 

She said the business grew as more people bought flowers for weddings, parties and business.

In 2002, department of Forestry and Range Resources officials who visited her garden were impressed by not only business idea, but also the conservation aspect of trees and plants. 

They enrolled her for various forestry conservation courses to grow her knowledge on trees and how to handle them.

Ms Mogorosi’s business started to grow more flowers, indigenous tress, grasses, fruits trees and some decoration species.

She advertised the business through the word of mouth, agricultural shows, market days and displaying her products in front of shops.

Trees and flowers prices ranged from P15 to P3 000. 

She is a self-employed and she sometimes engages temporary employees to assist her. 

She wanted to expand her garden because flowers and trees were profitable. 

The gardening business, she said, was growing at a healthy pace.

However, Ms Mogorosi said her flowers and trees were recently damaged due to frost and insects. 

She said she needed transport to market her product and wished to expand it to meet growing demand.

She was concerned that some people preferred to buy trees and flowers in Francistown and Gaborone instead of buying in Serowe to support the growing businesses. 

She appealed for government departments’ and companies support to buy from the garden to beautify their spaces. Ends