Garden Writers
Amsterdam Belgium 2006
July, 2006
 

Thursday July 6th we left Amsterdam and headed towards Brussels for our second part of the tour. On the way we stopped in at Plant Publicity Holland to meet our host who would be escorting us to our visits. PPH has as its principal task the collective promotion of Dutch hardy nursery stock in the Netherlands and other countries. They organize and support a wide range of activities aimed at promoting the sale of Dutch hardy nursery stock on behalf of and for colleagues in this sector. In the Netherlands and other countries the aim is to increase sales of Dutch hardy nursery stock and promote the good, reliable reputation of the sector. PPH's activities extend around the world to North America, Japan and many European countries. Our first visit today will be to Jan van Zoest Clematis Nursery where we met Wim Snoeijer. An amazing nursery of 2½-3 ha and 5000m² greenhouse, full of perfectly maintained clematis. At the time of visiting there wasn’t a lot of Clematis blooming due to the cuttings they have just made for propagation. They do all propagation at their own nursery and they also have a breeding program. Wim Snoeijer personally takes care of the breeding at van Zoest nursery. They grow about 400 cultivars of Clematis.

Then we cross the street to visit Nico Rijnbeek and Son Nursery where Nico was there to meet and greet us. Rijnbeek and Son are both growers and exporters of perennials...a rare combination in Holland. Together with a number of contract growers, Rijnbeek and Son offer more than 2,000 varieties of the newest and best quality bareroot perennials. They specialize in Astilbe, Dicentra, Hemerocallis, Heuchera, Hosta and Papaver. Rijnbeek's perennials are exported all over the world, including to America, Canada, Europe, Japan and Scandinavia. Rijnbeek and Son is also a leading producer of containerized perennials. Together with a large number of contract growers, they offer more than 2,200 varieties of perennials for the Dutch, European and Scandinavian markets. After we finish our visit with Nico, we are treated to a boat tour through some of the canals in Boskoop with a box lunch provided. We are refreshed now and ready to visit Applied Plant Research unit in Boskoop and meet our host Marco Hoffman. Professionals in knowledge and product development, PPO’s Nursery Stock Research Unit provides support to the nursery sector in the form of research aimed at providing practical solutions. Their research takes into account societal developments regarding environment and sustainable production. They focus on practical innovations for the production chain and workable cultivation and farm management concepts through active knowledge transfer and implementation of workable solutions. To reduce the amount of waste, they focus on new products for the nursery sector such as degradable pots and degradable tying materials. Healthy plants in a healthy environment can be achieved by looking for new, safe pesticides with safe application techniques. This makes it possible to use less product and to reduce emission. This is supported by the selection of less disease-prone crops and the development of optimum cultivation conditions. The PPO garden in Boskoop was in spring 2002 extended with a number of new crops. The range of crops will be extended further to give the garden a stronger instruction and educational function, in which education and nursery sector play a more prominent role. Healthy and strong crops will be given prominent place in this garden. Primary school pupils have recently planted a number of new avenue trees which are included in their utility research, for which trees have also been planted in 16 municipalities in the Netherlands. Topical themes are included in the renewed garden. There is room for flower bulbs, perennial plants and fragrant crops. Novelties and award-winning crops take up a prominent position. Current trends will also receive more attention, such as planting underneath trees. We continue on to Brussels after this wonderful day.