Based in the Kihingo area of Njoro, a small town in Kenya’s Nakuru District roughly 110 miles from the capital city, Nairobi, Rimi Flora Ltd is widely known for its Hypericum production. Well, there are spray roses and Achillea grown as well, but the Hypericum is the main flower in their product assortment. These flowers have put the grower on the floral map globally. In fact, Rimi Flora Ltd is, internationally recognized for being one of the leading suppliers of Hypericum to the Dutch flower auction. And that is for a good reason; the exquisite quality, diversity of varieties, and year-round consistency.
A Passion to Bring the Beauty of African Flora to a Global Audience
With about three and a half decades of experience in the flower industry, Richard Mutua, who is Rimi Flora’s founder and Managing Director, has always been driven by the passion to bring the beauty of African flora to a global audience.
A horticulturist by training, Richard who has worked in the flower industry for nearly his entire life, first began by working in the flower industry in Naivasha from 1990 up to 2002. He later helped in the starting of Kilimanjaro Flair, another flower establishment near Moshi, a city in Tanzania, where he remained between 2002 and 2005, after which he moved back to Kenya. However, it is Rimi Flora Ltd, which he started in 2007, that has made a significant impact on the global flower scene, and for him on a much more personal level.
Richard, a Hypericum specialist with years of experience with flowers, first began growing these unique blooms under Rimi Flora in 2007 on a farm in the Naivasha region, before moving the operations to Njoro in 2015. Here, the flower farm grew quite fast. 2017 came and saw him establishing his second farm in Kinangop, a region roughly 50 miles away.
Now, both farms—Farm A at 2,300 meters above sea level, and Farm B at 2,500 meters above sea level—employ at least 350 individuals working on its different sections. Advanced preparations are underway and a third farm (Farm C situated at 2,500 meters above sea level) is taking shape still in the Kinangop region.
As noted before, while Rimi Flora also grows some 14 varieties of spray roses in greenhouses on a sizeable tract of land, it is the Hypericum that remains the grower’s main flower as the largest portions of the farms are covered with the flower. They grow eight varieties of these flowers. There is the cultivation of Achillea Magical Inspiration as well.
Growing Premium Quality Hypericum
Based in Boskoop, Netherlands, Kolster BV is a leading breeder specializing in developing new varieties of plants and flowers. The breeder’s ‘Magical Series’ consists of a range of unique flowers that are highly sought after in the global flower market. For years, Rimi Flora has been working with the breeder’s Hypericum Magical Series, making the grower one of the first such farms growing the varieties contained in the Magical Series. Considered a Hypericum-cultivation pioneering farm in Kenya, Rimi Flora is, essentially, one of the only two representatives of Kolster BV in the region, tasked with the responsibility of licensing and assisting growers to succesfully produce Hypericum varieties from this breeder.
These varieties come in different shades and colors. Think of exquisite beauties like Hypericum Magical Cherry (brown), Hypericum Magical Mirage (green), Hypericum Magical Triumph (red), Hypericum Magical Lightning (dark red), Hypericum Magical Royal Cream (cream white), Hypericum Magical Royal Princess (pink), Hypericum Magical Seasons (brown), and Hypericum Magical White Prince (white); they are all available on the farm which produces roughly 16 million stems a year. It is, largely, the striking berries that make these flowers from the grower renowned; the more reason they are premium quality.
Flower Production Rooted on Four Key Pillars
Like many other growers, Rimi Flora’s flower production is based on some key pillars. In this case, there are four such core pillars—Sustainability, Innovation, Quality, and Community—that drive the cultivation of flowers that are not only vibrant and fresh, but also grown responsibly, with the use of cutting-edge innovations and technologies, and all while striving to uplift local communities. From eco-friendly flower farming practices to water conservation and green energy integration, the grower guarantees that the processes involved in the production of flowers do not have any adverse impacts on either the environment or the general community and neighborhood.
The flower farm also has in place water management systems including rainwater harvesting, recycling systems for runoff water, and efficient irrigation systems. What is more, there are soil health management practices in place including composting, crop rotation, and cover cropping, as well as reduced chemical use and enhanced use of organic manure. With all these in place, Rimi Flora guarantees that their farms produce the finest quality flowers while nurturing nature, its people, and society by extension.
The Healing Bouquets Campaign
Held on December 13, 2024, the Healing Bouquets campaign was one of Rimi Flora’s shows of how it nurtures people and society. While the grower has previously been supporting the local community; providing water to local families, maintaining the local roads, and helping with the maintenance of the general infrastructure, as well as assisting in empowering its neighbors, this year Rimi Flora thought of doing something different, as Vicky Mueni who is in charge of sales and marketing and business development indicates.
Vicky Mueni:
“We decided to do something profoundly different—something that touches the heart and redefines the purpose of flowers. Through our Healing Bouquets campaign, we visited Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) to gift flowers to cancer patients and new mothers. In Kenya, flowers are often reserved for romance, celebrations like graduations and engagements, or sorrowful moments like burials. Seldom do we consider the role of flowers in healing and wellness. Yet flowers carry an unspoken power—a way to bring hope, comfort, and beauty into moments of pain or recovery.”
Thus, alongside the Rotary Club, Rimi Flora distributed bouquets of flowers from its farms to the patients at the hospital, and while the experience was heartwarming, it also shed light on a societal mindset that, according to Vicky, Rimi Flora hopes to change.
Vicky Mueni:
“Some patients questioned why we brought them flowers; ‘Are we dying…?’ they posed reflecting a widely-held belief that flowers are mainly meant for such sad moments. Others, however, embraced the bouquets with gratitude, telling us that the flowers gave them hope and the strength to get better.”
The campaign, she notes, was more about challenging perceptions and misconceptions, and showing Kenyans that sick people, too, deserve flowers—not as a symbol of sorrow or grieving, but as a gesture of love, encouragement, and care. Through Healing Bouquets, Rimi, therefore, hopes to inspire a shift in people’s mindset; to create the notion that flowers are not just meaningful for festive moments or farewells, but also for helping in healing, for life, and for hope. Noteworthy, however, Rimi Flora remains committed to bringing to the floral world the beauty of premium Hypericum and other varieties, all the while ensuring that nature, the environment, and society are all nurtured.
