Schoneveld Breeding PlantXperience

Pepijn Schoneveld, who did not take over the company from his parents but continued his life as a comedian, chaired an extensive program with a lot of humor.

Owner and Director Peter Peter van de Pol welcomes the guests.

The people of technology and translators. The guests, who may not have come from all over the world, but from many corners of the world, could also follow the program in French, Italian and English.

In terms of look and feel - and also in terms of the objective of being a center of innovation, education and inspiration - the building is a bit like the World Horti Center in Naaldwijk.

In the Netherlands alone, Schoneveld employs between 200 and 250 people Perhaps not all of them were present, but at least to a large extent.

In the background, the breeding and R&D facilities.

An important part of the program was dedicated to the different employees. Pepijn called out several, such as Dinja Lankhorst and Huub van Oorsprong, both area managers within the company.

And these gentlemen, also area managers, Yi Zhao and Gianfranco de Leo. Over the last years, the sales team has become increasingly international, so international that the official language is now English.

Gerard Zwiers, responsible for the breeding department, and Koen Pelgrom, seed physiologist, talk about their profession.

Here two employees that are working in the company for quite some years. Ingrid ten Hove has been working for a respectable ten years and Ton Koers, who has now spent 45 working years at Schoneveld.

And with so many years at the company, Ton had a special honor to fulfill:

On behalf of the staff, Peter and his wife Daniëlle were handed this sundial.

Except here in Wilp, Schoneveld has a production location in Tanzania. On behalf of the employees there, Akson said a few words and offers Peter and Daniëlle a gift. There are two paintings in the package - and they will undoubtedly get a nice place in the new company.

Not all employees from Tanzania were able to come over, but thanks to a life video connection they could still be thereThe official opening act consisted of a short act, in which one of Peter's sons wants to have a plant delivered on a cyclamen order app. This drone flew in almost immediately.. — Not all employees from Tanzania were able to come over, but thanks to a life video connection they could still be thereThe official opening act consisted of a short act, in which one of Peter's sons wants to have a plant delivered on a cyclamen order app. This drone flew in almost immediately.
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The official opening act consisted of a short act, in which one of Peter's sons wants to have a plant delivered on a cyclamen order app. This drone flew in almost immediately.

Then the tour - in ten different groups. Much has been invested to meet all sustainability requirements, says Jolanda Veenhof-Tas. For example, the water cycle is completely closed and there will be another solar field, which will have to fulfill its own energy demand. The whole of greenhouses is surrounded by a corridor, as in the test greenhouses of the WUR in Bleiswijk, with which an effective climate buffer has been created.

The confetti canon did his job and the opening was a fact.

Employees looking for seeds and picking them out of the crop.

For each department, depending on the crop, screens, lamps and even the entire greenhouse layout is tailor-made. Here, in the cyclamen department, investments have also been made in LED.

Koen Pelgrom talks about the breeding, how the facilities have been arranged in the new building, about sequencing the DNA of the cyclamen, the search for markers (which, for example, make the crop heat-resistant or confer certain resistance) and all other activities with which he and his colleagues are involved with at Schoneveld.

A glimpse from one of the offices to the production greenhouse.

The big advantage of working under a glass roof is that everyone always sees a lot of daylight.

Tamara Janssen from the marketing department talks about the thought & philosophy behind the new building. It is true that there will be no school income and there will not be a permanent exhibition such as the one found at the World Horti Center, but the open structure and large space provide a striking similarity. Indeed, there is much room for meetings and for knowledge exchange.

On the right you can see a number of cold stores. These are built in such a way that if a fire breaks out, its content won't be affected.

At Pieter Bot, Schoneveld's man of finance, one can go for interesting facts & figures. In the new building, 150 tons of steel were processed, 10,000 windows and 20 kilometers of PVC pipe, just to name a few.

Simon de Boer is an expert in technology and gave just a 5 minute introduction about light, heat and water, but with probably the same ease, he can also attach a detailed 5-hour story. Behind him a number of water tanks and on the map on the right on the ground a schematic overview of all tanks is drawn. One of the special features is that different 'recipes' can be administered to all departments, and that the drain then returns via a pipe specifically intended for that one recipe.

At the same time, people like to keep it simple wherever possible, for example by not hanging complicated formulas on the buffer per recipe, but just a color.

We make a round, but because of the hygiene not through the greenhouse, and meet different employees along the way who talk about the different plants and highlilghts from the range.

In campanulas, the world knows the varieties under the brand name Addenda (outside of Europe they are known as Florentes). In the search for better, nicer and stronger plants, compactness, exuberant flowering and the formation of an even round shape remain important, says breeder Stijn Megens.

In all departments, depending on the needs of the crop, a pallet of water recipes can be administered (and, if not included, removed again). So , it looks like this.

The different pieces of tube (that come out of the floor and marked with colors) are intended for the drainage. Fore every row of benches, the hose of the washing machine must be hung in the drain pipe. With the only difference that one must choose from 10 pipes.

Marco Persoon tells the story of the primula. Schoneveld has been involved in breeding since the 90s, and this has resulted, among other things, in finding a primin-free variety. That was a breakthrough as the substance caused skin irritation for many people. After a few more years of breeding, the primeless variants were launched in 2002 under the Touch Me brand, which is still known in the world.

Sadrach Talahatu talks about the crop groups ranunculus and primula. These categories are less known among the consumers than, for example, cyclamen, and that is, of course, a shame. There is still a lot to be gained for these two crops.

An image that you don't often see: tables full of dead plants. Yet nothing special is going on here: the plants have done their work, the propagation has been done and now they are, literally, ready.

Edwin Klompenhouwer explains what is involved to be able to store seed properly and safely, to guarantee uniformity of a batch as much as possible and which tools are available to him and his team for this purpose.

Once again the complicated-looking system of water pipes that can be seen every few meters in the corridor.

Ton Koers tells with great enthusiasm about the cyclamen, which the market knows as the Cyclamen Super Series.

Part of this cyclamen assortment was presented on a table. Of the many series that one now has, each individual series often consists of a whole series of colors. It would therefore have been for practical reasons that only the white variants were displayed.

Afterwards, guests were offered a lunch.

Schoneveld Breeding PlantXperience

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