Having grown up in Noordwijkerhout, in the epicentre of Holland’s bulb district, it was no surprise that when Mark left school at 15 he headed straight to a local nursery to look for work.

But the place he found himself working at was anything but typical, as Jan Lommerse’s operation was one of the first nurseries in Holland dedicated to production of perennials.

Mark checking up on his crop of Ligularia 'Brit-Marie Crawford'

After several years of hard grafting Mark had accumulated enough knowledge and experience to branch out on his own, growing perennials for cut flower production in a rented field in the local area.

Nice work if you can get it, but field production can sometimes be a 7 day a week occupation, and when everyone else is heading past your field on their way to the nearby beach in summer it can feel a bit restricting! So a slight change of direction was required.

Mark van Kesteren and Patrick Brama

Mark’s dedication and hard work had put him in a position to be able to purchase a nearby site complete with greenhouses, formerly used for growing Lilies for the cut flower trade. He took on a partner, former colleague at Lommerse Patrick Brama, and together in 1994 they formed Kebra – the name being an amalgamation of both surnames.

Very young plants are nurtured through their delicate early stages at Kebra

Today, Kebra is one of the vital links in the chain that produces perennial plants on a commercial scale. It specialises in propagation from cuttings and also grows perennial plants through the delicate early stages after tissue culture production. The young plants are grown in plug trays in the greenhouse until they are large enough to be planted out in the field.

For more about Mark van Kesteren and Kebra nursery go to Mark van Kesteren's home page