12-19 September 2006: enthusiasm on the Andes
A first trip to Colombia and Ecuador without having to report to a boss. I had visited the region some dozen times since 1992 and for the first time I included a touristic weekend. You can call it loyalty or stupidity. Anyway, my friend Bert Lamerichs was my private guide.
In 1994 I persuaded Bert and his wife Hinke to emigrate to Ecuador. I worked for De Ruiter's New Roses at the time and wanted to set up breeding facilities in Ecuador. Hinke, breeder by origin, would work for us and Bert became the general manager of Hilsea Investments, owned by Peter Ullrich, where we had our greenhouses.
Bert and I visited the traditial Indian market, a last piece of rainforest, a new shopping mall and spent the night in an old monastery. I really managed to put business aside and enjoy these two days.
Then my budding business again: the plants were growing well at Ipanema and Qualisa. Everybody involved was enthusiastic. I presented the Da Vinci Rose plan to Moises, general manager and co-owner of Ipanema. His only objection was the royalty element (as I anticipated, knowing he was a Jew and I Dutch). At this time, I suggested a double royalty in return for exclusivity and a price of $ 1.00 per stem (some three times the regular price). This way I could support my cash flow. Later I would abandon this idea, which was a last element from the traditional rose marketing system.
I also met with Jos Langeslag, another Dutchman in the region, who had emigrated with his partner Karen d'Hont to set up FlorControl, specialists in postharvest quality control and also representing the environment label MPS. Being active in both Colombia and Ecuador, FlorControl could carry out the controls on the production side for me. I had already prepared the technical specifications, which FlorControl needed to complete in collaboration with both farms. Jos instantly was 'in', with compensation yet to be worked out.
woensdag 30 juli 2008
donderdag 17 juli 2008
the TRUE. story
September 2006: the home front
My parents, Pap (my father-in-law) and my buddy Peter all receive a flower from the plants still present in the Preesman greenhouse. All are enthusiastic, although the flower heads are much smaller than TRUE. will be. Ludmilla, a top lawyer of Bulgarian descent, helps me out with the legal issues, at no charge. It is good to have TRUE. friends.
My parents, Pap (my father-in-law) and my buddy Peter all receive a flower from the plants still present in the Preesman greenhouse. All are enthusiastic, although the flower heads are much smaller than TRUE. will be. Ludmilla, a top lawyer of Bulgarian descent, helps me out with the legal issues, at no charge. It is good to have TRUE. friends.
TRUE. today
Time to send out a TRUE. update to all those involved: Excellence, Qualisa, FlorControl, Galegos & Neidl, Verdict, Import Flower Services, KesselsKramer, Tjep., Thomas, Roses and Blooms, Floralies, Elizabeth Ryan ... Here is the email:
this rose challenges your patience. TRUE.
Traditionally, reds are grown in Colombia and not in Ecuador. For nearly two years Qualisa has struggled to produce TRUE. roses in Cayambe (Ecuador), with ups and downs. Presently, there again is a down in spite of all the technical efforts, investments and creativity. The Ecuadorian climate and UV seem not to be tamed. 1 September next will be the go/no go date here.
Excellence Roses in Colombia, on the other hand, continues to be excited and amazed with the flower quality, lasting for three weeks in the vase. They expect to start shipping in several weeks. Their production will be a few boxes per week until November/December, when the numbers will be at least tripled.
After having shipped from Quito through Miami to New York for a few months, we came to the conclusion that, although TRUE. roses can easily stand the length of the journey, the damage inflicted by the handling is not fit for such an exclusive product. Therefore, we have started to fly the boxes in directly. Maximum freshness, minimum handling (but extra cost). Import Flower Services (New Jersey) is taking care of this.
The TRUE. display, packing and other PR materials are still in the Delaware Valley warehouse, waiting for a new distributor. We are searching.
We have received a sample of a TRUE. dozen-gift box (in addition to the box for the single rose). This will need some changes.
We have received the second series of samples for the golden thorn, looking nice, but not perfect yet.
We will start working with the latest version of the Verdict data logger system, enabling us to monitor transport conditions of each shipment through the internet.
The TRUE. launch, in collaboration with Capricious magazine and New York press, will be postponed to next winter, when Excellence gets into full production. Until that time, only Roses and Blooms, Floralies and Elizabeth Ryan can be served.
Roses and Blooms has been selling TRUE. roses for nearly a year now and the proof of the pudding is in the eating: customers come back for more. Two weeks ago part of a movie was shot in the store, with celebrities such as Kim Raven, Lindsay Price and Brooke Shields present. Luckily, some boxes of TRUE. roses came in, were sent out and each recipient called back later, TRUE.ly impressed.
It has been a long, tough quest so far, but step by step we get there.
this rose makes a lasting impression, whether you want it or not. TRUE.
this rose challenges your patience. TRUE.
Traditionally, reds are grown in Colombia and not in Ecuador. For nearly two years Qualisa has struggled to produce TRUE. roses in Cayambe (Ecuador), with ups and downs. Presently, there again is a down in spite of all the technical efforts, investments and creativity. The Ecuadorian climate and UV seem not to be tamed. 1 September next will be the go/no go date here.
Excellence Roses in Colombia, on the other hand, continues to be excited and amazed with the flower quality, lasting for three weeks in the vase. They expect to start shipping in several weeks. Their production will be a few boxes per week until November/December, when the numbers will be at least tripled.
After having shipped from Quito through Miami to New York for a few months, we came to the conclusion that, although TRUE. roses can easily stand the length of the journey, the damage inflicted by the handling is not fit for such an exclusive product. Therefore, we have started to fly the boxes in directly. Maximum freshness, minimum handling (but extra cost). Import Flower Services (New Jersey) is taking care of this.
The TRUE. display, packing and other PR materials are still in the Delaware Valley warehouse, waiting for a new distributor. We are searching.
We have received a sample of a TRUE. dozen-gift box (in addition to the box for the single rose). This will need some changes.
We have received the second series of samples for the golden thorn, looking nice, but not perfect yet.
We will start working with the latest version of the Verdict data logger system, enabling us to monitor transport conditions of each shipment through the internet.
The TRUE. launch, in collaboration with Capricious magazine and New York press, will be postponed to next winter, when Excellence gets into full production. Until that time, only Roses and Blooms, Floralies and Elizabeth Ryan can be served.
Roses and Blooms has been selling TRUE. roses for nearly a year now and the proof of the pudding is in the eating: customers come back for more. Two weeks ago part of a movie was shot in the store, with celebrities such as Kim Raven, Lindsay Price and Brooke Shields present. Luckily, some boxes of TRUE. roses came in, were sent out and each recipient called back later, TRUE.ly impressed.
It has been a long, tough quest so far, but step by step we get there.
this rose makes a lasting impression, whether you want it or not. TRUE.
TRUE. today
Spoke to Pablo on the phone. The plants of Da Vinci Rose (variety name, only perfect flowers are TRUE.) are growing well and after all branches had been cut off to make new plants, the plants started to flower again. Pablo had flowers in his house, lasting 3 weeks.
This made my day, month, year. His excitement recharges my nearly empty battery.
Here they are, the three of them, Pablo, Luis Ernesto,TRUE.:
This made my day, month, year. His excitement recharges my nearly empty battery.
Here they are, the three of them, Pablo, Luis Ernesto,TRUE.:
donderdag 10 juli 2008
A Rose Story - 4. The Twins
Four: the twins
Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam are slowly urbanizing the west of The Netherlands, grabbing bits and pieces of the remaining rural area in their centre: the ‘green heart of Holland’. The Boskoop district forms part of these lungs, with its traditional shrub growing industry. For generations, families carrying their own individual nicknames, have manually worked long stretches of land, 25 meters wide, 400 meters long, surrounded by canals with water levels controlled by windmills. Picturesque, but slowly disappearing by economics, environmental legislation and housing. Benthuizen is part of this district, seeing fruit trees and strawberries after having been pumped dry as polders at the end of the middle ages, surviving turf-for-fuel digging in the following decades, to specialize in rose bushes in the beginning of the twentieth century.
Grandpa Pieter left the Boskoop nursery he worked for, lent some money from an uncle and started his own rose business in 1917, moving his family of nine from a small terrace house to his newly built house at the head of his land in 1932. Changing crops temporarily to potatoes and wheat, the family survived the famines of World War II. After the liberation, roses were put back in and Grandpa Pieter started looking for mutations, new colors that would spontaneously appear in varieties. Shortly after, he started his own pollination, collecting seeds hips, sowing the seeds after winter and selecting seedlings in spring and summer. The breeding had started. His twin sons took over the business in 1962 after a family meeting in which price and payment conditions were decided. The same procedure was followed in 1970, when Father Dré took over the house after Grandpa Pieter’s death. His wife Aaltje had already passed away in 1959. Uncle Piet also wanted to have the parental house, but, with Father Dré being older by a few minutes, he then built his house at the opposite end of the property.
Grandpa Pieter’s orange Deo Volente (1929) and red Hollandia (1961) can still be found in rosaries all over the world. His motto “work differently, think differently and act differently, but work hard” was regularly mentioned, but never adhered to. Office hours were stuck to at all times, even around 1981, when the company was virtually bankrupt. At that period, the twins and their cousin, management assistant Maurice, would be looking out the window, waiting for a potential client or the postman to arrive, hopefully with a cheque. Maurice would then walk out to collect the mail from the box, bring it in, open the envelopes and pass the pile to Father Dré. Father Dré would read everything, put it back in the envelopes and pass it on to Uncle Piet, who would repeat the action. With Maurice, the pattern came full cycle, after which he would distribute the relevant mail to the three pigeon holes for further handling. Letters that were complicated to handle would travel from one pigeon hole to the other to end up, after time went by, in somebody’s drawer.
When I arrived on the scene, the post ritual was adjusted: I would come in after Uncle Piet. At that time, fax had already made its way into the business world and, although they were mighty proud to have this piece of machinery, it degraded the ritual by allowing the more important matters in at random hours. Fax messages would be picked up and put back on the machine if its content begged attention. Maurice would then hole them after some time.
Maurice handled the bookkeeping and cherished the occasional consumer that stopped by to buy a few rose plants. He would walk with them to the far end of the land, to come back after half an hour with some cash that was put away in the little safe behind the portrait of Grandpa Pieter in the little meeting room, whose principal function was to contain all prizes won at competitions over the years. Mrs. Hassefras would come two extra days per year to polish all the medals.
Father Dré truly hated consumers and refused to see them, even if he was the only one present in the office. Every Monday he would complain about consumers ringing the doorbell of his house after having found the office closed on Saturday. Every Monday Maurice would reply that those terrible consumers saved them ten years earlier, enough to have Father Dré shut up.
Father Dré took over the breeding job from his father, Uncle Piet the domestic sales. Since Father Dré spoke German and English and liked combining business and holiday, he also looked after exports. Twice per year he would drive to Finland to take the orders. In the mid eighties, when Witte de Wit’s made its way into the greenhouse market with cut roses and miniature pot roses, Uncle Piet looked after the contacts with the professional propagators: half year old bushes were then made in Limburg and stentlings in specialized greenhouses. Still, Witte de Wit’s were a proud member of V.R.V., Vereniging van Rozen Vermeerderaars, the association of Dutch rose propagators that controlled the business.
V.R.V. organized open houses, participation in fairs and, most importantly, the sales of the varieties of the different breeders at home and abroad. For these efforts, the propagators would receive 50% of the royalty amounts collected by the breeders in Holland and the propagators themselves in case of export.
Father Dré did not like people, but he still liked attention. Uncle Piet, on the other hand, was a very social person who loved a lot of people around him, as long as he was not in the spotlight himself. They married the wrong girls: mother Sien had Uncle Piet’s character and Jo Father Dré’s. Sien cycled around the village, Jo liked to show off her classic Beetle. Uncle Piet found his bride at the same, Protestant side of the village. Father Dré was re-baptized to allow for a marriage with a girl from the enemy side. As a good Catholic he produced four sons and four daughters. Uncle Piet had two sons. Consequently, Father Dré’s house was always full of people, Uncle Piet’s empty, and, as a result, a lot of ‘Dréing’ was done on Sundays. With Father Dré’s sons outnumbering those of Uncle Piet, Dré was ‘Father’ and Piet ‘Uncle’.
Both twins loved driving and big cars. Father Dré liked his Volvo, full of gadgets, Uncle Piet drove Mercedes. Brands for life.
Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam are slowly urbanizing the west of The Netherlands, grabbing bits and pieces of the remaining rural area in their centre: the ‘green heart of Holland’. The Boskoop district forms part of these lungs, with its traditional shrub growing industry. For generations, families carrying their own individual nicknames, have manually worked long stretches of land, 25 meters wide, 400 meters long, surrounded by canals with water levels controlled by windmills. Picturesque, but slowly disappearing by economics, environmental legislation and housing. Benthuizen is part of this district, seeing fruit trees and strawberries after having been pumped dry as polders at the end of the middle ages, surviving turf-for-fuel digging in the following decades, to specialize in rose bushes in the beginning of the twentieth century.
Grandpa Pieter left the Boskoop nursery he worked for, lent some money from an uncle and started his own rose business in 1917, moving his family of nine from a small terrace house to his newly built house at the head of his land in 1932. Changing crops temporarily to potatoes and wheat, the family survived the famines of World War II. After the liberation, roses were put back in and Grandpa Pieter started looking for mutations, new colors that would spontaneously appear in varieties. Shortly after, he started his own pollination, collecting seeds hips, sowing the seeds after winter and selecting seedlings in spring and summer. The breeding had started. His twin sons took over the business in 1962 after a family meeting in which price and payment conditions were decided. The same procedure was followed in 1970, when Father Dré took over the house after Grandpa Pieter’s death. His wife Aaltje had already passed away in 1959. Uncle Piet also wanted to have the parental house, but, with Father Dré being older by a few minutes, he then built his house at the opposite end of the property.
Grandpa Pieter’s orange Deo Volente (1929) and red Hollandia (1961) can still be found in rosaries all over the world. His motto “work differently, think differently and act differently, but work hard” was regularly mentioned, but never adhered to. Office hours were stuck to at all times, even around 1981, when the company was virtually bankrupt. At that period, the twins and their cousin, management assistant Maurice, would be looking out the window, waiting for a potential client or the postman to arrive, hopefully with a cheque. Maurice would then walk out to collect the mail from the box, bring it in, open the envelopes and pass the pile to Father Dré. Father Dré would read everything, put it back in the envelopes and pass it on to Uncle Piet, who would repeat the action. With Maurice, the pattern came full cycle, after which he would distribute the relevant mail to the three pigeon holes for further handling. Letters that were complicated to handle would travel from one pigeon hole to the other to end up, after time went by, in somebody’s drawer.
When I arrived on the scene, the post ritual was adjusted: I would come in after Uncle Piet. At that time, fax had already made its way into the business world and, although they were mighty proud to have this piece of machinery, it degraded the ritual by allowing the more important matters in at random hours. Fax messages would be picked up and put back on the machine if its content begged attention. Maurice would then hole them after some time.
Maurice handled the bookkeeping and cherished the occasional consumer that stopped by to buy a few rose plants. He would walk with them to the far end of the land, to come back after half an hour with some cash that was put away in the little safe behind the portrait of Grandpa Pieter in the little meeting room, whose principal function was to contain all prizes won at competitions over the years. Mrs. Hassefras would come two extra days per year to polish all the medals.
Father Dré truly hated consumers and refused to see them, even if he was the only one present in the office. Every Monday he would complain about consumers ringing the doorbell of his house after having found the office closed on Saturday. Every Monday Maurice would reply that those terrible consumers saved them ten years earlier, enough to have Father Dré shut up.
Father Dré took over the breeding job from his father, Uncle Piet the domestic sales. Since Father Dré spoke German and English and liked combining business and holiday, he also looked after exports. Twice per year he would drive to Finland to take the orders. In the mid eighties, when Witte de Wit’s made its way into the greenhouse market with cut roses and miniature pot roses, Uncle Piet looked after the contacts with the professional propagators: half year old bushes were then made in Limburg and stentlings in specialized greenhouses. Still, Witte de Wit’s were a proud member of V.R.V., Vereniging van Rozen Vermeerderaars, the association of Dutch rose propagators that controlled the business.
V.R.V. organized open houses, participation in fairs and, most importantly, the sales of the varieties of the different breeders at home and abroad. For these efforts, the propagators would receive 50% of the royalty amounts collected by the breeders in Holland and the propagators themselves in case of export.
Father Dré did not like people, but he still liked attention. Uncle Piet, on the other hand, was a very social person who loved a lot of people around him, as long as he was not in the spotlight himself. They married the wrong girls: mother Sien had Uncle Piet’s character and Jo Father Dré’s. Sien cycled around the village, Jo liked to show off her classic Beetle. Uncle Piet found his bride at the same, Protestant side of the village. Father Dré was re-baptized to allow for a marriage with a girl from the enemy side. As a good Catholic he produced four sons and four daughters. Uncle Piet had two sons. Consequently, Father Dré’s house was always full of people, Uncle Piet’s empty, and, as a result, a lot of ‘Dréing’ was done on Sundays. With Father Dré’s sons outnumbering those of Uncle Piet, Dré was ‘Father’ and Piet ‘Uncle’.
Both twins loved driving and big cars. Father Dré liked his Volvo, full of gadgets, Uncle Piet drove Mercedes. Brands for life.
TRUE. today
Walter's message did not really come as a shock. Although the last flowers I had seen were TRUE.ly beautiful again, there did not seem to be any in the last few weeks. I assumed that again there were quality problems. Two days ago, I received photos from Jan Ooms (Roses and Blooms) affirming this: blackening, burnt edges.
Walter, Qualisa's Dutch general manager, told that initially, the measures taken in the production had shown improved quality, but when the weather changed (very low temperatures in the early mornings), the problems had started again. 90% of the flowers were not TRUE. The goal of 50%, set for 1 September next, seems beyond reach. Two years of trying, ups and downs, enthusiasm and disappointment. I feel sorry for the people at the farm, José Luis and his team in the post-harvest, Miss Da Vinci (as we named her) with a big smile holding a bunch of TRUE. roses.
My only hope now is with Excellence in Colombia. The fate of TRUE. in the hands of Pablo and his technical manager Luis Ernesto, the master of red. Their confidence and professionalism prevent me from panicing. Still, I instantly asked them for an update and pictures. Latinos, so I have to be a little patient. Two days, so I will call them tonight.
Walter, Qualisa's Dutch general manager, told that initially, the measures taken in the production had shown improved quality, but when the weather changed (very low temperatures in the early mornings), the problems had started again. 90% of the flowers were not TRUE. The goal of 50%, set for 1 September next, seems beyond reach. Two years of trying, ups and downs, enthusiasm and disappointment. I feel sorry for the people at the farm, José Luis and his team in the post-harvest, Miss Da Vinci (as we named her) with a big smile holding a bunch of TRUE. roses.
My only hope now is with Excellence in Colombia. The fate of TRUE. in the hands of Pablo and his technical manager Luis Ernesto, the master of red. Their confidence and professionalism prevent me from panicing. Still, I instantly asked them for an update and pictures. Latinos, so I have to be a little patient. Two days, so I will call them tonight.
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