And that’s quite a seat. At the operation in Thika, a small town about an hour drive from Kenya's capital Nairobi, many different intermediate rose varieties are produced. On a smaller scale also chrysanthemum, limonium and a set of other flowers are grown. Besides that, coffee is produced in fields circling the greenhouses, and vegetables are grown, mostly in support of their own workforce.
Probably the best way to get an impression of how things work up there, is paying a visit. Thomas kindly welcomed us at the beginning of this month, taking the time to walk us about the farm. With the help of the photos below we now walk you through as well.
Thomas Ochieng, director of Penta Flowers, among the roses in one of the many greenhouses.
Handling & processing area, where all flowers are sorted, measured, checked, bunched, marked and prepared for shipping.
In this part of the greenhouse Penta Flowers grows chrysanthemum. The area covers about half a hectare, but will soon be expanded with another hectare.
The farm makes its own organic fertilizers. This is done first of all by gathering all plant waste and shredding it -
- Then it is left to compost. After a while, it is placed on these tables, where worms are added to have a nice meal. After a while -
...a blackish liquid is produced and drips out from below, which again is collected in cans. Now it is ready to be added to the irrigation water.
New rose bushes freshly planted. The plastic, though by itself probably not the most environmentally friendly, helps to save water and keeps pests at bay.
In the background you can see the coffee plants. These stood in the field up front as well, but had to make room for limonium. Young plants are being planted right now.
Penta Flowers is one of four growers forming The Flower Hub. Together with WildfireFlowers (16 ha roses, 19 ha hypericum, 4 ha molucella), Nini Flowers (44 haroses) and Kariki (4 farms, roughly 110 ha roses), a wide variety of flowers areconsolidated and sent to Europe and other parts of the world.
For more information:
Penta Flowers
Thomas Ochieng