How did you end up in this cultivation and how long have you been doing this job?
In 1985 I passed the training Tree nursery at the horticultural school in Vught, after which I joined the family business. This was a mixed company that was increasingly focusing on the tree nursery. In 1998 the container cultivation was added to get more labour distribution and more sales opportunities throughout the year. In total, I have been doing this for 26 years.
What is your main sales market?
The majority of the plants goes to wholesale in the Netherlands and abroad, gardeners, garden centres and fellow growers.
What do you see as your strengths or how you distinguish yourself on the market?
Strengths of Roelands Boomkwekerijen bv are the quality and speed of delivery. The wide range (90 types) that we grow and have in stock at our own nursery is also a strong point.
Within the container cultivation, do you also experience trouble with blowing over and if so, how do you solve it?
When we started the container cultivation in 1998, I decided to secure all plants with ropes. This worked reasonably well in the beginning, but you cannot place many plants per square meter. Over the years I have tried everything and I went to colleagues for good solutions such as pot in pot systems and racks of reinforcing steel. After this I decided to order custom-made galvanised wire racks, which I liked very much. This was a more expensive affair, but now there are standard racks that are produced in large numbers. Even for our 15 litre pots we had racks made in which we grow plants up to 2 metres high.