A day at our nursery

A day at our nursery

What actually happens before a plant ends up neatly on the shelf at the garden centre? Take a look behind the scenes at our nursery, because it’s never boring here. Precisely because the work changes with the seasons, time flies. Broadly speaking, we handle the entire process ourselves: from growing and selling to preparing orders and transport.

We grow perennials and bedding plants close to home in the greenhouse and on our container field, while the trees, ornamental shrubs, conifers, hedging plants and Christmas trees grow in open ground.

The day starts early here. First a careful look around: which batch needs what attention? Based on that round, we plan the day. In the busy production season the potting machine runs at full speed. The plant plugs are potted up by machine and then set out neatly in the greenhouse or on the field, where they receive the best care to grow into a product we can be proud of.
For the open ground, which we do mainly in winter and spring, the planting machine is hitched behind the tractor. With it we quickly get the young plants into the ground, after which they often need a number of years to reach their final size.

Once the plants are ready, the sales process begins. We offer the batches that are ready for sale to traders and garden centres, usually by the full trolley or complete loads at a time.

Then it’s all hands on deck to get those orders ready. This is real handwork: selecting plants one by one, removing any weeds or a yellow or brown leaf, and placing them in the right containers. Everything is loaded onto trolleys and pallets so it can be transported neatly.

In the evening we deliver the orders ourselves with our own transport, often towards Aalsmeer (Royal FloraHolland) or straight to the customer. Handy, because on the way back we bring empty trolleys with us so we can carry on straight away the next day. And we regularly offer large batches at the flower auction; they go under the hammer very early in the morning, so that later the same day they are already on display at a garden centre somewhere.