Aname certainly not unfamiliar to lovers of African succulent plants is that of Petr Pavelka, a Czech entrepreneur with a family tradition in succulent plants.
Portrait of Petr Pavelka Sr.
His father, Petr Pavelka Sr. was born in Silesia in 1941 and during the Soviet regime worked as a laborer in uranium mines. While still in his 20s, he became passionate about the world of succulent plants until he founded a local association in 1975. In the 1980s he also involves his son Petr Pavelka Jr. in this passion, specializing in South African succulents, especially Lithops.
The real turning point for the Pavelkas came with the fall of the Iron Curtain: as early as 1992 Petr Pavelka Sr. was finally able to visit South Africa in person: it was the first in a series of trips that would take him to the remotest corners of the world, including Hawaii, Fiji, Tahiti, and New Zealand to admire their naturalistic riches. He would pass away in 2003 on his very last mission to Australia, leaving a deep passion for plants and wilderness explorations as a legacy to his son, who was already hard at work in the nursery.
Petr Pavelka Jr. made numerous exploratory trips to Mexico, Chile, Africa and Madagascar, which led him to the discovery of numerous new plant species, while his nursery enterprise established itself as one of the most serious in Europe dedicated to the world of succulent plants.
In recent years, all of Petr’s efforts have been focused on the establishment of a new nursery located near Prague, equipped with the most advanced technological devices to cultivate and disseminate among enthusiasts the rarest succulent species in the world.
Palkowitschia participates in Festa del Cactus for the first time.
