LG Flowers is a family owned business run with devotion by Mike and Joyce Lansbergen. In 1972 grandpa Piet Lansbergen started growing vegetables. In 1975 the company switched to the cultivation of large-flowered gerberas. Later, the company also started offering bouquets so that they could offer customers more choice.

With over 100,000m² of flowers, they grow about 70 million gerberas per year. A team of 100 employees ensures that the gerberas arrive good at the customer. This makes them one of the largest gerbera producers in the world. LG Flowers is a modern, labor and environmentally friendly company that specializes in the breeding, selection and production of gerberas and gerbera plants. They have two locations, both their own specialization. Where one specializes in concepts for for florists and wholesalers, the other specializes in bouquets, gerberas on water and concepts for the Retail.

Mike and Joyce are the backbone of this company. Mike is Sales Director & Logistics and his sister Joyce is the Managing Director. Joyce describes herself as stubborn, a go-getter and always looking for new opportunities. It is not for nothing that she won the prize for the most inspiring horticultural woman in 2014. She has managed to put her company and the gerberas on the map!

Mike led us with great enthusiasm through his company and shared a lot of knowledge about the challenges and wonders of his work. It is a challenge to always have done logically and delivering on time. On the other hand, developing own species and inventing concepts is of course very fun!

Most of the production is already automatic but the gerberas are still picked by hand. The flowers are not cut but pulled out from the ground, this ensures that there are no remains of the stalk on the plant which otherwise will end up rotting causing the plant to die. The gerberas are then transported by and automatic chain conveyor to the production area, within a half hour. Here they use a buffer system, which collects all the gerbera’s. Then they are transported to one of the sorting machines or the bouquet line. is used in the process from which all gathered gerberas are collected and transported to one of the sorting machines or to the bouquet line.

The company is incredibly environmentally friendly. MPS GAP, MPS SQ and MPS-FLORIMARK are just a small selection of the certificates they have. Since the start of this year, 50 percent of the crop is grown organically. If this goes well, the cultivation will grow to 100 percent organic next year. That means that they no longer want to use pesticides at all.

The Germini 'Mi Punki' is in the spotlight of the FloraPodium this week. ‘Mi’ stands for mini gerbera and ‘Punki’ for the leaner character of the flower. LG Flower has bred this flower herself and she has only been on the market for a year. It is therefore a whole new flower with improved properties. The ‘Mi Punki’s’ are available in all colours, including a few two-tone varieties. They are of good quality and therefore have a long shelf life. The flowers themselves have a larger diameter than the known Spider variant. That is why the Mi Punki is nominated for the Dutch Tulip Award.

Mike's dream is to grow a special gerbera which the whole world would recognize for its distinctive characteristics as an LG Flowers. He also hopes to open a new branch somewhere in Europe.

The gerbera is a flower that does not smell and especially stands out for its bright colour! This way she brings happiness in every bouquet. The flowers can be single-colored, two-tone or multi-colored. There are also available in different forms, small-flowered and large-flowered gerbera species. Originally the flower comes from Asia, South America and Tasmania. It is a popular flower with over 900 million gerberas grown in the Netherlands every year.

Cut a small piece of the bottom part of the stem at an angle. Use a glass vase witch you can clean with a little chlorine. The stalk of the gerbera draws water up from the bottom, so you only have to fill the vase with a layer of water of about 10 cm. Add a drop of chlorine in the water, because the flower is very sensitive to bacteria. This way you can enjoy your cheerful bouquet of gerberas the longest!

FloraPodium, 02 May 2018