ABOUT LAGUNA

medinilla… makes our heart beat faster

We cultivate three varieties of Medinilla.

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about laguna

Laguna is a great family company run by the three De Bakker brothers: Ron, Frank and Michel, and their brother-in-law Chris Kester. Just like many other family companies in the Westland, our roots lie - literally - in tomato cultivation. We decided not to go for continuous scaling up. We preferred the specialisation option, cultivating a houseplant that is rare in the Netherlands: Medinilla.

It is a plant that challenges us every day. It’s a little mysterious, rare and has an unusual shape. When we first encountered it, our growers’ heart skipped a beat: it had to become our product. We also specialise in a select assortment of seasonal products.

Two companies in Wateringen

Our nursery is located in Wateringen, at the Middenzwet. Distributed over two companies, we have plenty of space: 4.5 hectares, devoted exclusively to cultivating Medinilla. There is yet another location for the seasonal products. We run a very modern business operation. With lighting and climate control, we optimally imitate nature to get Medinilla to flower in time. This enables us to deliver all year-round. Our buyers vary: from a premium garden centre to a supermarket. And the product varies accordingly: Medinilla is available in several formats (we call them ‘stages’), each with a different price.

Sustainable business

We work with a total of 25 employees, most of them on a permanent contract. And our business is sustainable. Water is recycled. Experiments with LED lighting are promising, which will ultimately allow us to save energy in the long term. One important advantage of Medinilla is that the plant has few natural enemies. This means we can reduce crop protection to a minimum. And it will be increasingly done in a biological manner.

 

three varieties medinilla 

We cultivate three varieties of Medinilla. Medinilla Magnifica is the ‘authentic’ Medinilla, gracious and fascinating. The new ones are Lambada and Flamenco, two varieties we developed ourselves. Breeding and propagation are done in house. Under the supervision of an external specialist, we are continuously looking for something new. For example, a different colour, such as developing red and purple varieties alongside the pastel pink one. For sales and marketing, we are affiliated with the sales organisation The Green Brand Factory.

About Medinilla
‘I never expected that the boys would cultivate such lovely plants instead of tomatoes’
jan
medinilla
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