A while ago now, 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.
I have always liked the Bromelia, it is a bold flowering plant which does not apologise for its glorious colours and eye striking leaves. They come in a huge range of colours from yellows and pinks through to deep reds and purples.
I was amazed at the amount of technology that goes into growing the Bromelia. Whereas the Freesia grower maintained temperature and irrigation through the use of a computer, the Bromelias live their lives on large metal ‘trays’ which start at one end of the nursery and slowing make their way around the space whilst the plants grow.
Starting out as tiny little plants they eventually are ‘scanned’ to determine their size with the bigger ones going onto the next stage and the smaller ones remaining in the nursery a while longer. The system is almost all done by computers, with people only helping to transfer them onto the scanning machine, and of course wrapping them up at the end of the process.
The bigger Bromelia are moved into a second large nursery, which may as well be a warehouse, and are left to develop into the proud, vividly coloured specimens you can see below in my photos. Amazingly, the second huge warehouse holds around 800,000 plants at any one time!
You might spot the odd blue Bromelia in the photos below, the owner of the nursery explained to us that from time to time they will get a plant which has gone a little wrong and ended up with a green flower, these are not wasted but are painted different colours (including blue), for people who like to order something a little different for their shops!
I really enjoyed my Visit to Bromelia grower in The Netherlands, and I hope you enjoy the photographs below.
