UCA
Underground Cannabis Archives
Nevil Schoenmakers
Nevil Martin Schoenmakers the first and original King of Cannabis. An Australian native with Dutch heritage. Nevil would become a master breeder of cannabis and the first person to sell cannabis seeds worldwide through his cannabis seed company in Amsterdam. Nevil founded the Seed Bank of Holland in 1984. Nevil had made a trip to the middle east along the hash trail to find and bring back cannabis seeds. Nevil traveled to Pakistan to acquire Afghan genetics directly from the region. Nevil collected the Mazar-I-Shariff strain which he offered in his first cannabis seed catalog.
Nevil also is responsible for collecting the first auto-flowering strain from Hungary. A picture of this strain is on two of his cannabis seed catalogs
and he refers to it as the roadside Ruderalis.
Nevil placed an ad in the July 1984 High Times magazine to offer and sell his cannabis seeds. Greg McAllister aka Seattle Greg saw this ad and he contacted Nevil and offered him several different strains of Northern Lights. Nevil accepted
the seeds but he wanted a clone of the Northern Lights #5 from the mother plant. Seattle Greg delivered, he brought a Northern Lights #5 clone
to Nevil in Amsterdam.
Sometime around 1985 Nevil bought some seeds
from Dave Watson aka Sam the Skunkman. Nevil
had acquired Skunk #1, Haze, Afghan #1 and California Orange from Sam. Nevil took the cannabis seeds he got from Seattle Greg, Sam the Skunkman and from his own personal collection of cannabis seeds and started breeding.
The strains that Nevil created would be famous. The Haze x Northern Lights #5 and the Skunk #1 x Northern Lights #5 would be sought after for years to come.
To avoid customs, Nevil smuggled cannabis seeds into the United States and Raymond Anthony Cogo would distribute the cannabis seeds to Nevils customers. Cogo was arrested and turned state's evidence against Nevil. This would be the beginning of the end for Nevil and the Seed Bank. Nevil was arrested in Australia in 1990 and held for eleven months. Two weeks before his trial Nevil made a deal with Ben Dronkers and Ben bailed Nevil out of jail and brought him back to Amsterdam.
Nevil sold the Seed Bank and Cannabis Castle to Ben Dronkers, owner of Sensi Seeds in 1991. Ben Dronkers would combine these two companies and form the Sensi Seed Bank. Ben would keep Nevil on as master breeder and advisor. After a short time, Nevil left Sensi Seed Bank. He would make his way over to Greenhouse Seeds where he partnered up with Greenhouse Seeds master breeder Scott Blakey aka Shantibaba, together they created Super Silver Haze, Super Lemon Haze and countless other award-winning strains.
Before leaving Greenhouse Seeds Nevil sold his collection cannabis seed to Shantibaba for an estimated 250,000 dollars. Nevil left Greenhouse
Seeds in 1998 to focus on other interests. On March 30, 2019, Nevil Martin Schoenmakers passed away at his home in Osbourne Park, Australia he was 62. I truly hope everyone understands and appreciates what Nevil has contributed to the cannabis we all enjoy today.
Rest in Peace Nevil and God Bless.