About Gerrit and the nursery
About me
I’ve been growing Dahlias for over 30 years! I started with conventional methods, and now I’ve been growing organically for about ten years. Since 2023, I’ve been a SKAL-certified organic grower.
I started breeding Dahlias around 2008. Bright Eyes was the first variety to be released, followed by the Dahlia Dreamy™ Series. These are still popular in the market, but my role in this series is the one of hybridizer, I am not involved in the production.
I love open flowered Dahlias. Dancing in the wind, freely accessible to bees and butterflies, blooming profusely alongside grasses and perennials.
When hybridizing dahlia and selecting from the seedlings, I look mostly for dark-leaved plants with flowers having a double row of petals in vibrant colours. And I like to see a dahlia to fill up a pot quickly, is sturdy, flowering profusely, propagates well and makes nice tubers. Quite a few of requirements to comply! I am satisfied when I see 1 out of 10.00 seedlings hit the market.
In 2024, I began focusing on the market for starting material for professional cut flower growers. See Cut flowers. I rely on the availability at other growers or dahlia enthousiasts who hybridize themselves and come to great results.
The pot nursery grower will appreciate the more compact open-flowering types of dahlia. I use a two liter pot for these Dahlia. Bright Eyes and Mexican Star will grow taller, they require a 4 liter pot, or larger.
Dahlia’s are excellent for landscaping too. I love to see them in the public green, mixed with grasses and perennials, creating a lush, beautiful rich and colourful appearance. Giving the biodiversity a boost because Dahlia’s are famous for the attraction of bees and butterflies! Take a look at the Bee and Butterfly collection i.e.for municipal plantings.
My nursery
Dahlia knows quite a few possible applications and channels of distribution. With their own wishes to receive the Dahlia.
Therefore we offer our Dahlia in a few forms. As a tuber, as a young plant on a 104 tray, a 10-pack, on a P9 pot and a 2 ltr pot. Just the way you want it.
The tubers are available in late fall or, when desired, late winter. The young plants on 104 tray, 10-pack and P9 are ready at the first halve of May. The 2 liter pots are consumer ready around mid June.
Working at …
Preijde Organic Flower Bulbs is a small, innovative company. Every year, we work on new selections and varieties for major players in the international market. We’re always seeking new markets for our products, in whatever form they’re taken. This makes the work incredibly diverse. One day we might be picking cuttings and sticking them in the sand for tuber cultivation, the next we’ll be transplanting them into 10-packs or 104-hole trays. Then again, we’ll be transplanting a tuber into a 2-liter pot for garden centers or a P9 for public green spaces or cut flower growers. Later in the spring, we’ll transplant seedlings, then the cuttings, and begin supplying potted dahlias.
Growing dahlias outdoors also requires a lot of attention. Planting, keeping them dust-free, hoeing, weeding… The best part is searching for new, suitable selections. Everywhere you look, there are beautiful dahlias, and you mark the prettiest ones! Crossing the flowers also requires attention every year. What’s the purpose of pollination? Which flowers are you looking for?
The care is provided by spraying crops with herbal extracts. I’m still exploring this, which means there’s still a lot of knowledge to be gained.
We begin harvesting the tubers in early October. It’s quite a demanding job. Once the harvest is in, we begin processing, sorting, and counting according to customer requirements.
By planting the specially selected tubers in December and January, we begin the new round, next year’s harvest.
A lot of the work is done manually, but where possible we use a machine.
Interested in working here? Interning? Researching new markets, developing new resources? Researching complementary crops?
There’s still so much potential in the production of organic starting materials. This is a great opportunity to delve deeper!
