South African plants thrive in the familiar Mediterranean climate of the San Francisco Bay Area.
The Western Cape Province of South Africa holds the richest biodiversity in all of botany. Three-quarters of its 8,600 plant species are endemic, flourishing upon a mere 0.4 percent of earth — a ratio 67 times more dense than in the wider continent of Africa.
Madroño president Geoffrey Coffey started the company in 2005 out of the back of a pickup truck. His garden column, “Locals Only”, first appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2002. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children, where he also sings and thumps the bass for Rare Device.
