Featured Member
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atoctin Mountain Growers was started in 1985 by Bob and Denise Van Wingerden in Keymar, Md. In the beginning, the young couple did everything themselves, from planting to delivering plants. Nearly 35 years later, the company employs 60 to 70 helpers in peak season. Catoctin Mountain Growers has 25 acres of growing space, including a 15-acre, state-of-the art glass greenhouse. All four of the Van Wingerden children, now grown, are involved, or plan to be, in the business. Tyler is vice president of sales, responsible for all sales and business development, new customers and new products. Bill is in charge of dispatching deliveries and logistics. Christina is greenhouse manager. She manages crews and sees to it that products are where they need to be. Blake is a senior at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., and plans to come back to the family business after graduation. Walmart is the company’s biggest customer, and under terms of its merchandising program, Catoctin Mountain Growers employs 110 to 115 additional people in spring and fall to water plants in 50 Walmart stores in Maryland. Tyler Van Wingerden said they like to be in the stores to help keep the plants healthy. The family is dedicated to growing top quality annuals, perennials, mums and poinsettias, 175 varieties of plants in all. Annuals make up 80 percent of production. A small number of perennials is grown for specific customers. The 15-acre greenhouse has had 2 more acres added to it. The greenhouse is a single structure, all under one roof with lots of entrances. “We like going from one area to another without getting wet,” Van Wingerden explained. The greenhouse is divided into bays with poles for support. Every bay has an overhead boom and all but the oldest section have ebb and flow flooring. All of
the floors are concrete. “We drain, filter and reuse the water,” Van Wingerden said. “Depending on the type of plant and where it is in its life cycle, we use either the overhead boom or flood to get water all around the roots. Not using overhead watering means less disease, and when plants are in flower, they don’t want to wilt the flowers, he added. Catoctin Mountain Growers has a unique slow sand filtration system that Bob Van Wingerden has been pioneering. All irrigation is done from their own pond, Van Wingerden said. All the gutters and drainage are directed to the pond. Water is pumped through a sand filter slowly, not under pressure, in a large concrete rectangle 40 feet by 60 feet and 4 feet deep. In addition to sand, the filter contains 2 feet of gravel. Water trickles through, then is stored and pumped to the greenhouse as needed. Van Wingerden said they are figuring out different and better ways to clean the sand filter. For now, they drain the filter, leaving a half inch of water above New shipping dock which the sand, then use a heavyis part of the 2 new acres built last year. duty shop vacuum to take off the top part. “We’ve also learned ways (continued on next page)
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The 15-acre greenhouse has had 2 more acres added to it. The greenhouse is a single structure, all under one roof with lots of entrances. “We like going from one area to another without getting wet,” Van Wingerden explained.
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down. “We do some, especially if a customer wants extra product or the destination changes,” he said. An ERP (enterprise resource planning) system specifically for greenhouses “lets us marry all production, shipping and invoicing. It keeps everything in one place. We use SBI Software, based in Oregon,” Van Wingerden said. Recent innovations include putting wireless internet in the whole
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to keep dirt out after a heavy rain event, to keep sediment out in the first place.” Catoctin Mountain Growers has four production lines, all of which are busy in spring. One line has an automatic transplanter with “fingers” that put plugs into packs. “We do as much of plug and young production as we can,” Van Wingerden said. “That helps control quality and cuts cost. We do quite a bit of our own, but we still buy in rooted plugs. Mums and poinsettias have an expanded market, including 60 stores in New Jersey, Sam’s Clubs, and local churches. The greenhouse produces 400,000 of each. Labels, as much as possible, are applied at production. “We label each unit, using different ways for different customers,” Van Wingerden said. If labeling is done just before shipping, it slows things
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Outdoor boom for watering our mums and hardy spring annuals.
facility. “We use wireless radio apps on smart phones, and managers can get email on their phones,” he continued. The phones allow managers to share photos and communicate directly. With SBI’s inventory system, team members can update inventory with their smart phones. “As we find equipment that works via the Internet, we are putting them in,” he added. Remote controlled equipment is an example.
Pictured from left to right: Bill Van Wingerden, Laurie Mann, John Murphy, Kim Chaney, Bob Van Wingerden, Christina Van Wingerden, Blake Van Wingerden, Amy Bechtel, Julie Iferd, Tracey Crabtree, Tammy Strine, Henry Thorpe, Tyler Van Wingerden
“We recently installed five booms that connect remotely. A grower can log in and turn water on or off or set a watering protocol. “We also get alarms,” Van Wingerden said. “When rooting a whole bay of plugs worth lots of money, if a boom stops at night, that’s a big deal.” A graduate of Grove City College in Pennsylvania, Van Wingerden concluded, “For me, business is just fun — making decisions and running a company. “I love how we get to make yards beautiful. When we are busy in the spring and I see five to 10 loaded racks, like a ship, bright and colorful… I really enjoy that our customers are excited to see our plants.” ❦ Carol Kinsley
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