February 7 , 2021 , is forever engrave in René Lievaart ’s memory . That twenty-four hour period , he saw his 12,000m2 freesia greenhouse in the Netherlands flop after heavy snowfall . Eight month by and by , a young greenhouse was completed . And René now grow lily instead of freesia . A ultra transposition for a company that had been produce freesia for 80 years . " In retrospect , I ’m pleased . "
Ludvig Svensson verbalize to the grower about all the change . " I desire never to feel anything like it again , " says René about the upheaval make by the intemperate snow . Lievaart ’s lowest nursery , quantify 12,000 m2 , break up . That was under the snow that pile up against a gamey nursery ’s wall . " I still ca n’t believe it really happened . It was like a bad movie . "
Entirely destroyedThe lower greenhouse was entirely destroy . And the conterminous higher one , too , was sternly damaged . Its paries had collapsed when the little nursery tumble . And its heating system was destroy . " The next sunup , it was -3 ° C in the greenhouse , " René call in . " I call up I was unfeignedly done for . "
But , René ’s concern was , fortunately , well - ensure . And his insurance company quickly develop several provider to begin repairing the damage . They erected a temporary wall within a daylight . So , some refinement could continue in the survive greenhouse . Peter v.d . Valk from El Flaco took care of renovating the screen installation . " Every last trellis was gone . So , we disconnected the filmdom and rewire the system , " say the installer about this unusual job . " I ’ve see Charles Percy Snow damage before , but this was just unbelievable . "
Switching to liliesFixing everything happened quickly , but René needed a long - term architectural plan . A newfangled greenhouse was built , and the damaged one was repaired . René and his brother , Ful , decided to start over and alternate to cultivating lily . Another pal , Peter , grows freesia at a different placement . He determine to continue on his own . " That all went well , " suppose René , " but it ’s , of track , a drastic change . Especially when you consider that my grandfather jump growing freesias here in the 1950s . "
" Growing freesias is actually very challenging . It ’s exceedingly labor - intensive , and yields are broadly speaking depleted . Last year , the flowers were expensive . And then the greenhouse collapse , which think of we did n’t have any . That was an superfluous blow , but it also grow us thinking . We got into talks with Moerman lily . And our new and renovated glasshouse are now production sites for them . Our third greenhouse will produce one last troll of freesia before we start grow lilies there too . "
Ready for the futureFor René , the conversion is one with a steep scholarship bend . " I ’m find out every daytime . We ’ve had to adjust our technical systems . And desire to speed up the cultivation a little more , " he say , describing the process . " I ’m now continuously regulating the cultivation . Crazily enough , I just have to harvest soon . That ’s the best part . "
In hindsight , René is pleased with the change . " Without that snowstorm , we ’d never have flip to lily . You could say Mother Nature literally crusade us in a different commission . But everything ’s worked out great . Everyone who visits says it looks wonderful . We ’re ready for the future , " he concludes .
