Situated in the historic Dutch city of Haarlem, the nursery was started by Jan Verschoor’s father, who grew and bred flower bulbs. In keeping with the emerging popularity of perennials, Jan introduced these to the nursery in 1980. At first they were primarily grown for cutflower production, but as increased competition put a squeeze on profits, Jan realized it made financial sense to also offer the plants to the gardening market.
Today the nursery is run by Jan together with 3 of his nephews. They have embraced the expansion of the European union, as visitors from Poland make keen workers.
Much of the business seems to come from Germany, and this plays a large influence on the kind of plants Jan works on.
Jan Verschoor surveys the Veronica crops
He doesn’t use chemicals on his crops so he can really see if they are disease resistant. People at home are unlikely to use chemicals so he wants to see how his plants perform under ‘realistic’ conditions.
Jan shows off some Solidago and Veronica varieties that make fine cutflowers.
As well as Veronica, many varieties of Phlox, Astilbe, Iris, Solidago, Agapanthus and others are grown at the Verschoor nursery to be sold both as cut flowers and garden plants.
Very short Astilbes can be sold initially as house plants.
Shorter varieties of Astilbe and Veronica are often first offered for sale as house plants, to be planted in the garden once they have finished blooming. The demand for this is particularly high in Germany.
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