Spring Valley Gardens — a growing tradition
There’s a local family behind Niagara labels
On a dark November day, with clouds so low you could almost touch them, I stepped out to pick up some lunch, and maybe, some flowers to brighten my office.
When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other — Chinese Proverb
This simple proverb reminds us of the importance of feeding both our body and our soul, and so I came back to the office with a sandwich and a potted amaryllis bulb. The sandwich was fine, but the amaryllis, packed with three fat buds, was a game changer.
The colourful pot wrapper included all of the instructions I would need: “Place the amaryllis in a light, warm environment, keep soil moist, blooms in two to three weeks. Success guaranteed!” I continued to study the wrapper as I munched on the sandwich, “Alfresco, Double White Amaryllis, Product of Canada, Spring Valley Gardens, Niagara Inc.”
Fast forward to Saturday morning, it is raining, again, but I didn’t mind. I’ve just stepped in to the greenhouse at Spring Valley Gardens www.springvalleygardens.ca in the north end of St. Catharines, and as far as the eye can see there’s a sea of red, white and pink poinsettias. Another house is filled with potted amaryllis, ready for the market. Join me for a behind-the-scenes tour of this family run operation with grower Jeremy Van Koeveringe.
He begins, “Our specialty crops are actually cut tulips, spring annuals and poinsettias, but we also grow amaryllis. The bulbs are imported from South Africa and Brazil; bulbs from South Africa are much smaller, but they pack a lot of punch, many two and even three stalkers.” That’s impressive.
The trend is for double flowering amaryllis, Van Koeveringe explains. “We grow Alfresco, a double white, and Rock and Roll, a double red.” The stems are shorter and stronger than some of the older varieties that are tall and tend to topple over.
“We grow about 65,000 amaryllis, a lot of these go to Ikea, the GTA is really our market, we ship mid-October to mid-December to the Ontario Food Terminal and the Toronto Flower Market,” Van Koeveringe explains.
We step into a massive glass house, this time filled with potted poinsettias. It’s a sea of vibrant red, white and pink flowers, each pot picture perfect.
“We are a premier grower,”
Van Koeveringe says. “We grow a lot of our products for upscale supermarkets in the GTA. We strive to grow a premium product in everything that we do, in fact, we have a reputation for that.
“This is a six-inch poinsettia,” says Van Koeveringe as he tosses the pot up in the air like a ball and deftly catches it. “No breakage. That’s quality, that’s a strong plant. We add a ring to support the stems, not everyone does that.”
What’s involved in growing a poinsettia?
“The bigger pot sizes get started about mid June, smaller pot sizes by mid July. The cuttings start in a rooting cube, and then they are bumped up to a pot. Everything is timed, we have a schedule that we follow. Poinsettias need a short day to turn red, and they naturally get a short day around September 20-25, they change from ‘grow mode’ to ‘flower mode.’ There’s a trigger and they start to turn red.
“Our biggest customer is Costco, we do a lot of spring annuals for them and they want poinsettias in the store for Christmas. This helps to keep our staff busy all year.
“This is my 20th poinsettia crop,” Van Koeveringe says.
I find it hard to imagine he’s old enough to have been growing poinsettias for 20 years.
“I’m 38 — I started growing when I was 18, I always wanted to get in to the family business. My dad was known in our industry to be a quality grower and I wanted to be like him.” I could hear the pride in his voice.
“A few years ago, I took over 100 per cent of the growing department for our company.”
Van Koeveringe learned on the job from his dad, and he also has a growing consultant that he works with. “He’s number one on my speed dial, he’s helped me a lot. He helps with timing, scheduling, disease concerns, managing your environment. You learn as you grow.”
“So after 20 years on the job, you are still learning?” I wondered.
“Yes, absolutely! It’s important as a grower to never get complacent. The minute you get complacent you have quality issues.”
“We bring in around a halfmillion poinsettia cuttings, some pots take three cuttings, the larger ones need four.” That’s a lot of poinsettias to grow and then take to market.
The final greenhouse we toured was buzzing with staff, “Today is a big shipping day, we are packing for Lowe’s Canada, we probably have 30 staff in here today.”
During the peak periods, they employ up to 200 people. Van Koeveringe greets a lady as she wrapped pots and stacked a cart.
“How long have you been working here?” he asks. “Twenty-two years,” she ssays smiling, “I like to stay warm in the winter.”
An interesting aspect of poinsettia production, is the use parasitic wasps to control white fly populations in the greenhouse. “We bring in sachets (little cardboard packets with wasp eggs inside). The wasps hatch and parasitize the white fly larvae. Beneficial insects, or bio-controls, are quite effective.”
As we wind up the tour, Van Koeveringe’s uncle, Ron, rolls into the greenhouse on a scooter. He’s giving his two-year-old grandson a ride. Ron, along with brothers John and Jake Van Koeveringe are the second generation to own Spring Valley Gardens, started by their parents Henk and Dirkje in 1979. Jeremy, marks the third generation to carry on the family tradition. He pulls out his phone to share a few pictures before I leave, “This is my life: flowers, my wife and our three kids.”
When you are shopping for Christmas flowers, look for the grown in Niagara labels — there’s a local family behind each of these tags.