Photo report: over 200,000 visitors ‘Kom in de Kas’

"We’re always cycling along this greenhouse and she always asks: ‘Mommy, what's happening in there?’ Now we can see it", says Yvonne (34) regarding her visit to one of the greenhouses that participated in the 39th edition of ‘Kom in de Kas’ (Visit The Greenhouse) in the Netherlands. Last weekend, on Saturday and Sunday several greenhouses in the Netherlands opened their doors to the general public. During these two days, more than 200,000 people visited greenhouses.

Rochus van Tuijl of LinFlowers: "Biological control is always a hit." Last Saturday he received thousands of visitors at his nursery Darolin II in the Bommelerwaard. "I get a lot of questions about why we let our flowers open so wide and don’t harvest sooner so the buyer can have them longer. But our client wants open flowers - not buds," he says. Seven companies in Bommelerwaard opened their doors last weekend and thousands of visitors attended. Celosia breeder Gert-Jan Klop of Kwekerij De Molenkamp: "We are on Facebook and did a lot of advertising in the region. The effect was noticeable." And the Evanthia team standing at the nursery door with a seed guessing competition, could see on their competition form where visitors are from: "From Maastricht to Friesland. Really everywhere – they came especially for ‘Kom in de Kas’."

In Westland each year a different corner of the region gets put in the spotlight. This year Dutch horticulture was again beautifully represented: Kwekerij Laguna showed how Medinilla is bred, at Anco-Pure Vanda and Ter Laak Orchids the origin of (special) orchids could be seen, Velden Roses offered a look in the greenhouse full of White Naomi, several garden plant suppliers were represented (Gebr. Nederpelt, BoGreen, CoBaplant), as well as two tomato growers (B.L. de Bakker & Zn. and P. & R. Zwinkels), a pepper grower (C. Duijvestijn) and an eggplant grower (Kwekerij van Luijk).

The pump location of the geothermal energy plant was an outsider during the combined ‘Kom in de Kas’ / Agricultural Open Days in Voorne Putten. Normally, all you see are plants and animals. Now people could suddenly visit a heating plant. Most people in the area had read what was happening in the regional newspapers in 2015. Everybody knew that there had been a drilling rig, but so far only a few people had been allowed on the site, for safety reasons. Now that the opportunity was being offered, people jumped at it.

Throughout the day there were consistently many people who all wanted to know exactly what the installation is for, how it works, how deep the drilling had gone and why the underground inlet and outlet points were so far apart. Many questions were also asked about the relatively short construction and installation period (1 year) compared to the long preparation time (8 years). Fortunately, there were several company shareholders and advisors walking around to explain it all as clearly as possible. That so much energy could be saved with a sustainable solution was a big surprise. Because of this, many people expressed their appreciation for the project. It's been good PR for horticulture, and Aardwarmte Vierpolders thanks the various organizations.