‘If our wine is drinkable, we’ll be able to add another niche’
What’s keeping you busy at the moment?
“I am currently mostly busy with sales. In springtime, we focus on potting up cuttings and potting conifers. We grow one type: Cupressus Wilma. In summer, we do more potting up of cuttings and in autumn, we focus on conifer sales. So in August, you can find us at the Florall trade fair in Ghent. Through Plants On Cloud, we are linked to FloraXChange, which means that some of the traders in the Netherlands can see what we have on offer. If we wanted to reach all traders using FloraXChange, we would have to pay extra, but I don’t feel the need for that. Our sales are adequate.”
You’re growing potted chrysanthemums, too?
“Yes, although we specialise in conifers. We do currently have a warehouse filled with potted chrysanthemums. Half of them are jumbo pots and the other half are 3-litre pots. We sell them to regular customers. We grow the potted chrysanthemums mainly so the warehouse doesn’t stand empty. Later on in winter, it’s in use again to store the conifers. In the conifer propagation area, we’ve got a second cultivation layer, which we’re using for hedera. The propagation area houses the conifers’ parent plants, which we take the cuttings from. We prune the parent plants into ball shaped trees and all the trimmings are used as cuttings.”
Who do you sell your plants to?
“Belgian exporters are important customers. Part of it goes through FloraHolland connect. And some of it goes to the auction, but only to the Veiling Rhein Maas auction in Herongen, as we wouldn’t want to end up competing with our own customers in the Netherlands. We aren’t auction members. If we were, we could still sell to Belgian exporters, but we’d have to pay the auction 2% of our turnover…”
How is business?
“July was an excellent month. Normally, we sell hardly anything during that month, but this year, we were able to sell our largest plants. Last year, I was lucky to sell the 3-litre potted chrysanthemums for €1,90. But this year, prices have gone up to between €2,15 and €2,45. That’s much better than other years. In the past, I had to peddle a lot more. We were still selling in previous years, though. We could see that there were a lot of plants on offer, but we still sold ours; if you offer good quality, you’ll sell. Demand is definitely increasing at the moment. I believe there are fewer plants on offer. I hope that demand will increase even further in the coming years, so that we can get better prices.”
What are your plans for the future?
“We have big plans. Until two years ago, things were hard in floriculture, so we started looking for alternatives. We decided to plant some grapevines for wine production. If everything goes according to plan, we’ll have our first harvest next year. Another year later, we’ll be totally up and running and in three years time we may have our first batch of wine. In springtime, we sell balcony plants and bedding plants. If our wine is drinkable, we’ll be able to add another niche to that. Ten years from now, maybe we’re no longer working in floriculture at all!”
Diederik Vandersteene
Company: Gemaflor Nurseries
Place: Zwijnaarde, Belgium
Products: Conifers (Curpressus Wilma), hedera and potted chrysanthemums.
Diederik Vandersteene: „I hope that demand will increase even further in the coming years, so that we can get better prices.”
