Special Feature
DeVroomen Turns 100!
by Nina A. Koziol
W
hen 30-year-old Jacobus Theodorus de Vroomen of Scandanavia started a business in 1925, he was a oneman show. It’s unlikely he mused about where the firm would be in 100 years. If only he could see where the business is now as it celebrates its centenary as a successful international entity. This fall alone, DeVroomen Garden Products is shipping more than 6.6 million bulbs, tubers and rhizomes to landscapers, retailers, the Denver Botanic Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden, and for planting along Chicago’s Mag Mile and at both Chicago airports. Angela Schultz joined DeVroomen 18 years ago as a receptionist, worked customer service and is now the general manager. “It’s a great company to work for and it’s like a family. The industry is phenomenal and I think it’s the best one to be in.” When we spoke in September, she was monitoring three ships on the Atlantic Ocean and waiting for 11 containers that held 54,000 tulip bulbs in each along with many other little gems that will make people very excited come spring. “Everything is grown in Holland with the exception of some grown Israel and Costa Rica.” The company does not sell to big box stores, preferring to distribute top-size, true-to-name bulbs and other plant products to independent garden centers. “Big box stores tend to do smaller bulbs,” Schultz said. To celebrate its 100th anniversary, the company introduced “The Centennial Peony,” which has very large pure white, double-petaled fragrant flowers. And, this past April, Bart Twaalfhoven, the Consul
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General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, came to Chicago to honor the company’s new “Magnificent Mile” tulip. In a ceremony on Michigan Avenue, he poured champagne, baptizing the new tulip—a tradition from his homeland. Many DeVroomen customers don’t realize that the company services the entire U.S., Schultz explained. “People think we shut down when the cold comes, but there’s a lot more going on than you might realize. If we’re shipping to California and the shipment is sitting in Utah where it’s freezing, I have to reroute.” Bulbs are pre-cooled, which is especially helpful when they’re going to southern states like Texas. Tulips are consistently the number one seller, followed by daffodils, but more landscapers are using ornamental onions because they not only look good, the deer and rabbits ignore them. It’s not just tulips and daffodils, however. This year’s catalog features 24 pages of dahlias in all their splendor. Caladium, calla lilies, elephant ears, cacti and succulents along with edibles like seed potatoes, onions, rhubarb, shallots and asparagus have joined the catalog for retailers. The firm also brokers plugs and sells to several large growers. After visiting the production facilities in Holland, Schultz came away enlightened at the intense process of selecting, planting, growing, harvesting and packaging. “It’s mind blowing when you see the production alone—it’s a lot of human hands and there’s so much that goes into it.” (continued on page 12)
The Landscape Contractor November 2024