Video: from grapes in hotbeds to carnations in Portugal

In the project 'Geworteld in Westland’ (Rooted in Westland) Westland family businesses are put in the spotlight that have been active in the region for at least 50 years, so have been in business for generations. One of them is hydrangea nursery Sjaak van Schie.

At the beginning of the previous century Koos van Schie began growing grapes, chrysanthemums, melons, beans and freesias with his wife Marie. The grower was one of the first to focus on freesias. They were grown in hotbeds, the heating was provided through coal combustion, and because Koos was a progressive man, he used an electric pump in the garden. Son Kees also had a feel for technology, evidenced by the fact that Van Schie was one of the first nurseries to buy a hand-controlled Hoogendoorn climate computer in the seventies of the last century.

When son Sjaak took over in the mid-nineties, a garden was purchased in Honselersdijk and the first steps abroad followed. The company started a carnation nursery in Portugal and a few years later a company in Uganda followed. In the meantime son Roel - fourth generation Van Schie – has also begun working in the company.