Environment & Natural Resources
CapeNature cautions visitors on wildlife encounters as Western Cape wildfires blaze on
12 Jan 2026
Woolies pays tribute to fynbos' resilience with limited-edition Veld Fire bouquet
Woolworths has teamed up with local flower supplier The Flowershed to create a limited-edition bouquet that pays tribute to the resilience of fynbos. The Veld Fire bouquet — available at selected Western Cape stores — uses fire-affected stems from veld areas severely impacted by recent fires.
Rising from the ashes
The new posy is meant to reflect the beauty, resilience and seasonality of local flora.
It forms part of the retailer’s seasonal indigenous flower range, which it regularly changes depending on what is available and what can be harvested responsibly.
Many indigenous botanicals have short flowering windows, and while fire is a natural and important part of fynbos regeneration, the scale of the blazes earlier this year caused significant disruption in several fynbos-rich areas, including Riversdale, Stanford, Napier and Gansbaai.
These areas support independent veld-picking teams who harvest indigenous stems with the necessary CapeNature permits and supply bouquet-making packhouses.
Ben Grib, general manager of family-owned farm The Flowershed, says the January 2026 fires were unusually severe.
“Generally speaking, it is healthy for fynbos to burn every 15 to 25 years,” he explains.
“But in January this year, about 133,000 hectares burned in roughly a month, from the Eastern Cape through to the Cederberg.
“That scale is much larger than would naturally happen.”
Beauty in burned stems
The affected areas provide year-round livelihood opportunities for more than 40 independent veld-picking teams, with each team typically of between eight and 12 people.
These teams work independently, harvesting permitted indigenous stems strategically and sustainably. Many of those stems are used as greenery in indigenous bouquets sold through Woolworths.
With large areas of veld now bare, the availability of stems has been severely disrupted.
The land is expected to take several years to recover, and affected areas are also vulnerable to erosion and invasive species.
The Flowershed farm, based in Citrusdal, narrowly avoided the fires by about 20 kilometres, but its raw ingredient supply was significantly affected.
Grib and his team proposed the new bouquet as a way to make careful use of the fire-affected stems still available on the land.
The blackened stems bring a distinctive sculptural quality to the bouquets, while helping create earning opportunities for harvesting teams affected by the fires.
“The idea behind this bouquet is to use what is left on the grounds and create value from the destruction,” says Grib.
“The burned stems are striking, and they make for a unique bouquet. More importantly, it means that some of the people affected are still able to generate an income.”
Practical
For Woolworths, the bunch reflects the value of working with suppliers who understand the season, the land and the realities behind every product.
“What makes this bouquet special is that it came directly from the supplier’s understanding of the landscape and the people affected,” says Marisa Munroe, chief product development officer for Woolworths Food.
“Ben and the team at The Flowershed saw an opportunity to make careful use of what remained after the fires, creating something distinctive for customers while supporting a disrupted harvesting community in a practical way.”