VanZanten Greenhouses

Jan VanZanten is one of Ontario's 3 freesia growers. Most of his 40,000 square feet of greenhouse space in the Niagara Peninsula is devoted to the fragrant cut flower crop. He sells 80 to 90 % of his annual production during the spring/summer season through the Ontario Auction Clock and to local wholesalers.

"I don't use artificial lighting to grow freesia because it is unnecessary. The light would give me more activity in the winter months but there isn't much demand for this flower outside of the spring season. It is a very popular wedding flower because of its huge colour range and delicate, sweet scent," says Jan VanZanten.

"Air conditioning would be preferable to light in terms of my equipment upgrades," adds Jan. Freesia is a cold crop, grown from tubers or bulbs. Once the crop has finished flowering, the soil is cooled down using cold water pipes, and that gets the tuber to bud. The plants are then stored in a cooler with the greens still intact to feed the bulb. When planting time arrives, the spent greens are removed along with the old bulbs and only the new buds are planted.

Once the flowers are harvested, the stems are bunched, trimmed and sleeved. The flowers grow separately from the leaves so the post-harvest work is quite simple. The sleeved flowers are placed in water and stored in the cooler.

Although Jan produces most of his own buds, he also regularly purchases new stock from Holland so that he has the latest colors and varieties. Jan Sr. VanZanten started growing freesia in Ontario in 1990, when he and his family emigrated from Holland where they grew greenhouse vegetables. Although Jan Jr. runs the farm on a day to day basis along with 5 other employees, Jan Sr. is still actively involved as a grower and has been working with Jan Jr. to develop a new crop for the business.

Hydrangea is a tricky crop to grow commercially as a long stemmed cut flower because the new buds for the next crop like to set just below the open blooms. "If we cut as a long stem flower we can also easily cut the bud for the next bloom, so our challenge is get the plant to bud where we want it to," says Jan Sr. "We alter the pH of the soil to get the vibrant pink, purple and blue colors colours in the Mophead and Lacecap hydrangea varieties, adds Jan Jr. "And we are also trying some of the Snowball hydrangea for white and green flowers."

"We are getting a great response to the giant head size of these flowers," says Jan Jr., as Jan's 10 year old daughter, Viktoria, happily demonstrates. " "And our post–harvest practices reduce the plant's notorious wilting problems. The sticky sap can clog the stem ends preventing proper uptake of water," explains Jan Jr. "Most people don't realize that you can revive wilted hydrangea in as little as 2 to 3 hours just by recutting the stems and adding fresh water. Our flowers will last weeks if you do that regularly."

And the last word goes to Jan Jr. 's wife, Christel, who also works in the family business when not busy with their 3 young daughters. "Very often one of these flowers is a bouquet all by itself", she says. "Three of them….you'll need a big container to balance the size of the blooms." For more information about VanZanten Greenhouses, contact Christel at cvanzanten@sympatico.ca.