THE man who introduced South Africa’s Protea to America, the late Howard Asper, has been awarded the 2000 California Floriculture Hall of Fame Award. Asper, who died in 1993, took a Protea seed from its native South African soil in 1961 and successfully propagated it in California in 1965. Today, he is widely recognised as the founder of the commercial Protea industry in the state. Asper’s Green Valley Nursery is still operating successfully under the direction of his son, Howard Asper, Jr. – African Eye News Service