Visit to Freesia grower in The Netherlands

A couple of months ago I was lucky enough to have been invited to visit the Flower Council of Holland at their office in The Netherlands to learn more about them and the growers of flowers and plants who support them.

The Flower Council encourage people to buy more flowers and plants, making sure that florists, garden centres and other outlets have a permanent place on our shopping list – supporting the growers. The Flower Council do this by inspiring, informing with inspiring campaigns.

During my short 2 day visit we had the opportunity to meet some of the growers, and I wanted to share some photos from my visit to a Freesia Grower.

Freesias are my mother’s favourite and so it felt very special to be seeing where they come from and to know that I may have very well bought flowers  from this grower for Mother’s Day!

We were able to see the Freesias at all stages of growth from tiny little new plants through to the amazingly scented blooms which were being gathered in (my hand), to go either to the flower auction or to private buyers.

I learnt that yellow Freesias are the most common, which is interesting, because I tend to choose the more blue/lilac and white colours which seem to be more popular in the UK.

I was amazed at the technology used in growing Freesias – both the watering and heating system are controlled by computer, with miles of pipes running up and down the length of the nursery with the hot water flowing through them to keep the plants nice and warm. The massive hot water tank was really something to behold!

Something I had never thought about when it comes to cut flowers is what happens to the plant (and bulbs) after the flowers have been cut and sold. Well, I found out that the bulbs are simply recycled – they are dug up and dried out (see photo below) for reuse! It seems the obvious answer but I had never really thought about it before!

The owner seemed very proud of his product, and I very much understand why. Rearing flowers is a full time job which doesn’t seem to let up! People want flowers in every season so there’s no time to rest and relax – the next crop has to be sewn! I really admired the grower and will certainly be looking out for Freesias particularly from The Netherlands from now on!