Frank de Mol and Els Verlee grow ivy in Flanders. In recent years, they have added various types of hanging plants to their range, including ceropegia, nepenthes, senecio, platycerium and davallia. Nursery De Mol-Verlee markets its plants under the consumer brand Breathe Nature. “We are in love with our plants, but we also want to make money from them.”
The greenhouse of Frank de Mol and Els Verlee, located in the heart of the Flemish ornamental horticulture region of Lochristi, is a green oasis. On the growing benches are ivy plants of various types and sizes. Several varieties of hanging plants are suspended from racks. The greenhouse is green all year round, Frank de Mol assures. Although many plants leave the nursery every day, new cultivation cycles are started every day.
At the front of the greenhouse, employees are planting cuttings from the ivy mother plants suspended higher up in the greenhouse. Working routinely and at a rapid pace, they cut the small cuttings from an ivy stem, pressing them into the pots on the containers in one smooth movement. As a rule, De Mol and Verlee plant one cutting per centimetre of pot diameter. This means that a 6 cm pot contains six cuttings, a 9 cm pot contains nine cuttings, and so on.
