Mediaverdi is a well known name for many in the flower industry. Both at home and abroad lots of professionals work with the snowballs grown by Johan and Bianca Buis. They were even asked to deliver their snowballs for the decoration of the wedding of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima, 18 years ago. Last year Johan and Bianca had a new greenhouse built so we thought it was high time to pay a visit to these enthusiastic growers and find out more about the Viburnum opulus "Roseum".

Mediaverdi

The name Mediaverdi originated from the Dutch phrase "Met Dianthus Verdiend"; meaning: “Earned with Dianthus” and was invented by Johan's father. A name that he wanted to put on his newly built house and he gave that same name to the nursery. Johan's great-grandfather, Opa Oor, founded the company in 1901, at the same location as it is today. The Dianthus / Carnation is a cultivation that has been grown by every generation, in combination with a shrub species. The shrub species changed every generation. When Johan took over the company from father Coos, who is still very active in the company, he introduced the cultivation of snowballs.

New greenhouse

The old greenhouses were demolished in 2019 and Johan and Bianca had a new, sustainable, future-oriented greenhouse built. The greenhouse is very well insulated and subdivided into 6 separate climate departments, which can all be controlled separately. The floors are concrete and a unique heating system has been installed, allowing the greenhouses to be heated with a low water temperature.

This primarily benefits the environment, but the crop can also be heated in a quiet, stable way. This results in qualitatively beautiful and strong flowers.

Water comes from a closed water system. The solar panels on the roof of the shed can provide the company with more than 60% of the necessary electricity; the remaining electricity is purchased green. It will come as no surprise that Mediaverdi is therefore MPSA + certified! Johan and Bianca strive to grow as sustainably and organically as possible.

Viburnum opulus "Roseum"

Viburnum opulus "Roseum" is commonly called snowball. She owes this name to her green, spherical flowers. These cheerful "balls" become whiter on the vase, until they finally "snow".

Snowballs are fresh, green flowers that give a wonderful spring twist to any bouquet. They have those nice "bouncy balls", as Bianca describes them with a smile. It’s an incredibly versatile flower thanks to the different ways they can be grown; the two-headed snowballs for example have two beautiful, large balls at the top of the stem. They are very suitable for processing in a beautiful traditional bouquet.

With four-headers, the name says it all, the top four balls (and sometimes more) are beautiful, full-grown balls. This variant is wonderful to fill a beautiful vase with, solo or in a field bouquet.

In addition another variant is auctioned by Mediaverdi. The quality of these branches is not inferior to the other variants, but the flowers on the stem are somewhat uneven. These are the branches that are used a lot by florists for field bouquets or arrangements.

This year, Johan and Bianca offer shrubs with unique long branches, some of them as long as one and a half meters! These are of course fantastic eye-catchers in large flower arrangements for special events!

"Growing high-quality flowers with the lowest possible impact on the environment and which please the end consumer" is Johan and Bianca’s motto, and they do everything they can to make this happen.

Cycle

In April, all the bushes will be outside again after the harvest of last season. During this period, the plants receive a lot of water and nutrition, so that the stems can grow for the coming season. In July the weather will change; it’s usually much drier. "You actually have to tease them a bit," as Johan calls it, "because then the bushes start to produce flower buds“. The leaf turns beautifully red in the fall and as soon as the shrub has lost its leaves, it enters the rest period. The bushes need a few weeks of cold before the bush actually starts flowering.

The natural blooming period is in April and May, but Johan and Bianca want to be able to cut the first flowers in January. To realize this, the first shrubs are placed in cold storage in October. Here the cold winter period is simulated and the plant still gets the necessary darkness and cold, so that the shrub can be drawn into bloom in January. It is only from January that the bushes go directly from the land into the warm greenhouse.

As soon as the plants enter the greenhouse, the temperature in the greenhouse is raised considerably during the first ten days. After these days, the temperature in the greenhouse is lowered, and the bushes are additionally illuminated with lamps. This causes the leaves to become nice and firm and dark green in color.

It takes about four weeks, from the moment the plant enters the greenhouse, for the first branches to be ready for harvesting. As soon as it starts, the whole greenhouse will be cut empty in less than a week after which the bushes are taken outside again, making room for the next batch of bushes to be drawn into bloom.

Extra long branches

Water is a very important factor for the Viburnum. When water is given at the wrong time, or it gets too much or too little water, this can have major consequences for the growth and flowering of the branches. If the bushes are in the greenhouse, this is easy to control. But if the bushes are outside, you are dependent on the weather. The extremely long branches that Johan and Bianca offer this year are actually a gift from Mother Nature. The summer of 2018 was extremely dry in the Netherlands, causing the bushes to be shorter than usual. So, to prevent the same thing from happening in 2019, Johan chose to give more water in the spring, so that the branches gained that extra length before the dry summer started. As it turned out, the 2019 summer was not that dry at all and the branches just kept growing. Those are the branches that will be harvested this season. We were enormously impressed by this special length and can very well imagine that these extremely long branches can be an enormous added value for many a florist, wedding and event arranger.

Generation 5 approaching

Jeroen, Johan and Bianca’s son, also sees his future at Mediaverdi. He is currently following a cultivation course and would like to follow in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather. Jeroen is very interested in lilac growing. He would like to put new varieties on the market and his parents give him all the space he needs to experiment and learn. Will he, like all previous generations, introduce another shrub when he enters the company? He still has a few years to go, but he is very ambitious!

FloraPodium,  05 March 2020