Clifton Homestead Nursery is located in South Otago as part of our family farm. The farm has been in the Telford family for over 150 years. Just over 100 years ago Ken’s Great Grandfather build a large homestead n the property which has been the home to generations of Telfords. Ken and Kate took over the farm in 1984 at a time which farming was in the doldrums and interest rates hit 21%. To make ends meet Kate started growing plants with skills learned from her parents Pat and Keith Stuart, who had a life-long involvement with plants and ‘retired’ from farming to start a garden centre in Wanaka in the early 1980’s. Growing hellebores was a natural progression for Kate as Pat had developed Niger White Magic at their Waipahi farm and hoped to continue the propagation of this.
Our stock of hybrids has developed from initial imports of seed from the UK and some double plants which Pat and Keith imported from a trip to the UK in the 1980’s. Since those early days Kate has been breeding and constantly improved the stock. In 2015 her work in this field was recognised when she was awarded the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture Plant Raisers’ award.