The 20-year-old Margaret Roberts Herbal Centre seed bank was opened in De Wildt last weekend in an event that marks history for SA.

Sandy Roberts opens the seed containers.

This seed bank was initiated by the late Margaret Roberts and her daughter, Sandy Roberts, after their visit to the Botanical Gardens in the Seychelles in 2001. This visit sparked Margaret and Sandy’s idea to build the first botanical and medicinal seed bank vault in South Africa.
The vault included seeds of herbs, indigenous plants, grains, and Margaret’s own variety of lavenders, High Hopes basil, and rosemary. A combination of unmodified and heritage seeds, both from Kirchoff/Ball Straathoff and the Herbal Centre’s own collection, were carefully sealed and stored in the seed vault with books written by Margaret, letters written by visitors, newspapers and magazines with the then-current news of 14 May 2005.
All was sealed away until Saturday, 17 May 2025, which marked the 20th anniversary and the grand opening with friends and family. Sandy opened the seedbank with Leonie Coulsen and Paul Vonk of Mayfords seeds SA.
The Herbal Centre will now grow these seeds. ‘’We hope each and every one of them will germinate. Once we have stock of these seeds again, we will be able to share them,” Sandy said. This brings in a new era of seeds and the re-closure of the seedbank for 5 years, to be opened again in May 2030 with a combination of seeds, including Mayford and Margaret Roberts seeds.
Paul Vonk said that seeds from Mayford were not genetically modified. “These are pure seeds for health, vitality and food. The importance of the Margaret Roberts seed bank Heritage program is that we save these seeds for generations to come. One finds these seeds less and less on the market.”
The Mountain Cambridge School’s Marimba Band opened the ceremony with beautiful notes while special guests, including delegates of the schools working with the Margaret Roberts seed bank programme gathered for this momentous occasion.