"’Tête Bouclé’ on its way to stardom"

Jansen’s Overseas started as a nursery but has shifted its core business to the preparation and export of flower bulbs over the years, says current commercial director and owner, Dennis van der Krogt. “Our bulbs come from a fixed selection of growers, who we place contract orders with. The bulbs that arrive to us are treated with a temperature treatment before they are sent to their destined markets.” Jansen’s Overseas primarily aims for the cut flower and public park market. “The potted bulbs are mainly destined for European garden centres, the bulbs for cut flower nurseries and public parks are sent throughout the world.”

Love at first sight
The first time Van Der Krogt spotted ‘Tête Bouclé’, a variety from Nic van Schagen & Zn. Nursery, was at the Spring Garden in Breezand. “I thought it was beautiful from the first moment I saw this narcissus with its signature double flowers. It wasn’t available on the market yet at the time. One day, CNB sales representatives Arno Kroon and Rob Paarlberg mentioned this variety to me, so I tried a few. Nowadays, there are about 15 growers within the Flora Pool that grow this narcissus. We have over 10,000 acres of this variety ourselves.”

Beautiful features
In addition to the double-headed flowers, ‘Tête Bouclé’ also produces a large number of stems, it is compact and has a long storage life. “There aren’t many good quality potted narcissi on the market, which are small-headed, double flowered and available at a reasonable price. This would also make an appreciative complement to the current range of garden centres”, says Van Der Krogt with confidence. “As this variety will also reproduce it is ideal for in town parks. ‘Tête Bouclé’ comes back every year.”

Temperature
Unfortunately, there is also a down side to ‘Tête Bouclé’. “She is a bit sensitive to viruses and grey mould. Currently, there is an experiment in process developing virus free samples. We hope to boost the quality level significantly with the results from this test.” On top of this, the temperature treatment is very important when it comes to narcissi and it requires the utmost precision. “The art lies with identifying the right requirements in order to get an optimum result. The more flowers we can get from a pot the better.” How Jansen’s Overseas is going to make this happen, is kept a secret. Van Der Krogt says with a grin: “That’s the chef’s secret.” Considering the positive feedback on ‘Tête Bouclé’ from the industry, he is convinced of this variety’s potential. “It’s quite a unique product and we see a steady growth in demand. Our challenge now is to keep fine tuning our offer to these demands.”

Text by Monique Ooms / Photography by René Faas

Source: Premium Varieties