Cool Wave pansies in the greenhouse.
Cool Wave pansies
According to Bouten, Cool Wave pansies are vigorous, have a long flowering period and are easy to maintain for the end consumer. "It easily flowers until the beginning of June", he says. Since 2015, he is growing all varieties of the series in P12 containers and sold the new Cool Wave Raspberry pansy for the first time last season. "This variety has been accepted quite well in the market", he says. Varieties that have been doing very well for several years now are the Cool Wave Morpho and Cool Wave Violet Wing.
Cool Wave Raspberry
Mainly for the German market
Bouten's Nursery is situated in Beesel, the Netherlands, at the German border. Every season, he produces about 50,000 pansies. The majority of plants are supplied to the Dutch, German and Belgium market. "Part of the production is sold at our garden center in Beesel and another part at the Veiling Rhein-Maas auction in Herongen, Germany."
Cool Wave Morpho and Cool Wave Violet Wing.
Desired auction price to be reached in 2018
At his own garden center, Bouten sells his products for fixed prices. However, at the auction they aren't fixed and depend on demand and supply. Fortunately, the auction prices for the Cool Wave pansies, both in containers and hanging baskets, have increased over the last years, but they have not reached the desired level yet. "It is still a new and exclusive product, and we want to keep it an exclusive product. We increase the production by 20 to 30 percent a year, but we do not want to flood the market with the products. Consequently, it takes a bit more time for the market to get familiar with it", says Bouten. "On top of that", he adds, "it is a more expensive product than the regular pansies as they are supplied in P12 containers instead of the P9 containers which are used for the regular pansies." All in all, it results in a price that is developing. "We see a slight increase in price year after year and in 2018, we expect to reach the desired price."
Hanging baskets in the greenhouse
First autumn hanging baskets
Bouten recognized that the Cool Wave pansies are doing very well in hanging baskets too. "Hanging baskets used to be quite old-fashioned, but this trend seems to be returning. During the spring seasons we offer pansies in hanging baskets and last season, we sold many of them. For this reason, we decided to start selling hanging baskets for the autumn season too, and I have high hopes for it."
For more information
Plantenkwekerij Bouten
Koen Bouten
Email: koen@kwekerij-bouten.nl
www.kwekerij-bouten.nl