After the forced break due to COVID, more than 75.000 visitors in Ghent, Belgium were finally able to admire the beauty and splendor produced by the Flemish arboriculture, floriculture, and cut flower sectors at the Floraliën 2022, and it was not only a place offering inspiration but also a showcase for the latest developments with regard to trends, sustainability, research & innovation. The theme for 2022 was ‘My Paradise, My Worldly Garden’.
The Floraliën Ghent, held from Friday, 29 April to Sunday, 8 May 2022 at the ICC, the Floraliën hall, and the Kuipke in the Citadelpark of Ghent, Belgium, is a gigantic indoor garden covering 1.5 hectares with a discovery trail that is 1.5 km long. Over 500,000 plants and flowers will be shown at the height of their beauty. The selection will be on display in various halls, with a special focus on the impressive stand of the Flemish horticultural sector, coordinated by AVBS, the professional federation for Flanders’ green industry, in the Floraliën hall.
The stand of the Flemish horticultural sector was prominently present in this edition of the Floraliën. The horticulturalists organized by far the biggest stand at the Floraliën: around 75 member growers are designing a 2.000 mq group stand. The stand’s theme is ‘Walk through the Mystic Lamb’, a depiction of the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by the Van Eyck brothers.
At the same time, it was possible to discover the horticultural production in the area around Ghent. Tree Nursery Van Poecke en Zn is specialized in growing high-quality hedge plants, but also conifers and ornamental shrubs. Thanks to specializing in a limited range of container cultures and plants grown out in the field, the company can guarantee plants of very high quality, of uniform length and volume, available in large numbers that can be delivered quickly. The attention to the environment is made by the use of solar panels that generate green electricity, monitoring the ecological footprint using VMS-MPS, collecting and reusing irrigation water conscious choices with regard to purchasing raw materials and sprays, sorting commercial waste and using 100% recycled pots “NIR-sortable / NIR-detectable” and KIWA certified.
Tree nursery De Troy Marc is a family business specializing in the cultivation of high-quality ornamental shrubs, conifers, ornamental trees and fruit trees. The company departs from the vision that everything revolves around the client. They offer their customers a wide range of attractive, high-quality plants that above all stand out from those produced in bulk. It is convinced that the consumer searches and compares consciously and critically. That is why Tree Nursery De Troy Marc makes an effort to provide plants with an attractive photo label and offers them in different pots and plant sizes. This year, the company is investing in low-volume spraying technology to be used for herbicides. This will make it possible to reduce the use of herbicides by 50%.
Deroose Plants is a leading, fast-growing company that is active in the (laboratory) propagation of horticultural and plantation crops and recently also fruit and vegetable crops. They produce a large range of pot plants and cut flowers: Bromelia, but also plants of the genera Ficus, Spathiphyllum, Aloë and orchids. Plantation crops are rubber, oil palms, cocoa trees and eucalyptus. Fruit and vegetable crops are artichoke, banana, bell pepper, blueberry, soy, potato, pineapple and watermelon. At their branches in Belgium, the United States and China, Deroose Plants added its subsidiary Exotic Plants, a Biotech-driven grower that breeds and propagates a total range of indoor plants. Deroose Plants is currently one of the largest, innovative companies in the world in the area of young plants.
Greentraders BV is the trading company of the De Vlieger Group and it offers a wide selection of trees for avenues and parks as well as ornamental trees. In addition, the group has a solid reputation with regard to the creation and maintenance of public green spaces, tree care, mowing, chopping down trees and alternative means of weed control. Greentraders offers a total service that revolves around the client, with a very broad selection of garden plants, a range of horticultural materials and quality equipment and a team that provides personal service and assistance. They do so with a passion for the product and with great and diverse expertise rooted in the tradition of a family company.
Rudy Roes Bloemenzaden, breeding in primula and other bedding plants, sells and produces flower seeds and young plants (‘PowerPlugs’) from seeds and cuttings for professional nurseries. Each product in Raes’ range has been thoroughly tested, not only in plug production but also in their outdoor trial field to make sure that the range offered has the quality required throughout the entire chain, making sure that the end-consumer is a also happy. Regarding sustainability, the company has installed LED lightning and has the capacity to stock 7 million liters of rainwater and recirculate the used water and fertilizers using a PRIVA UV disinfection installation. For the future, the Raes company is focusing on energy-saving investments, looking into ways to become more self-sufficient when it comes to energy.
Fleurig, bedding plant grower, is specialized in growing flowering patio plants as primula, tagetes and delosperma. In addition to cultivating bedding plants, they are also known for creating the flowering arrangments for municipalities and events. The company even invented Boer Bloem, the first alcohol-free beer based on flowers. The beer is brewed with the classic basic raw materials, but the undertone of the taste is fruity with a typical acidity and the overtones are elderflower and hibiscus. The typical light orange-pink color comes from the hibiscus and it is a completely natural color.
The Flemish horticultural sector shows its influence at the Belgian garden at the Floriade Expo 2022 in Almere, near Amsterdam, in The Netherlands from 14 April to 9 October 2022 too. Flanders’ Agricultural Marketing Board put landscape architect Nicolas Godelet in touch with numerous leading companies. Belgium, its Regions and Communities have chosen a triangular piece of land of about 500 mq on the waterfront to promote the country’s horticultural characteristics and green innovations. The garden and the pavilion designed by Nicolas Godelet Architects & Engineers houses Belgian solutions for “Growing Green Cities“, the theme of the exhibition.
For the Floriade, the firm designed a project that is at once architectural, geometric and natural, reflecting Belgian gardens. It is a playful space, a place of relaxation where families can take the time to try out wooden games. The Belgian garden also offers an inspiring trail, for example, the edible plant path. Visitors will furthermore discover the strengths of the horticultural sector in the expo zone of the Belgian pavilion.
In a half-open modern pavilion in the center of the garden where the Brussels-Capital Region, the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region will present the innovative solutions of Belgium for the horticulture and agriculture of the future. The pavilion’s architecture is designed to minimize its environmental impact. Each material chosen is fully reusable or degradable, low-carbon, regenerable and natural: earth, wood, hemp, and naturally compostable bioplastic, all these materials will be reused or recycled at the end of the exhibition.
The Flora Journal 