‘I want to show people how beautiful bedding plants can be’
How long have you been working in this field?
“I’ve been working in this field for fifty years. In the final year of my horticultural studies – I was 22 years old at the time – I worked in the Netherlands with Jaap van Staaveren, Hilverda and Bosma. That was back in the 1960s. Once I had returned to Poland, I initially started working at my father’s company and later on I sold carnation cuttings for Van Staaveren. In 1976 I started here, in this location, with the production of carnation cuttings for Van Staaveren. That’s why my company is called Dianthus.”
But you’re no longer growing carnation cuttings?
“I stopped growing carnation cuttings when Russia stopped buying them. That’s when I started with potted and bedding plants. I’ve been here at this spot for forty years now. One of the greenhouses was built forty years ago, the other one was built fifteen years ago. I use gas for heating. I am now cultivating 2 million cuttings of potting and bedding plants every year for Polish growers. We import propagation materials among others from Danziger and Syngenta. I grow bedding plants until mid September and potted chrysanthemums and poinsettia in autumn. I actually imported potted plants from the Netherlands as well in the 1990s.”
You’re selling bedding plants in August?
“Some people laugh at me because I still sell bedding plants at the end of the summer. It costs a lot of money to deliver good quality and it’s not the season. But I want to show people how beautiful bedding plants can be. What they look like when they’re in bloom. When customers buy bedding plants in May, they’re still very small and don’t look as nice. My company is situated on a main street in Warsaw, lots of cars drive by here. The traffic sometimes gets stuck because people want to have a look at the plants out in the front. Because of our prime location, we can sell directly to customers as well. In the beginning of September, Polish people return from their holidays and some of them dig up the dead plants from their gardens and buy new ones.”
How are the sales doing?
“Despite the fact that the Polish economy is improving, sales have been going down the last couple of years. That’s mainly because of the weather. Also, older people love flowers and plants, but young people don’t really. They have a different mentality. They’re not interested in buying geraniums; that’s not modern in their opinion. And they’re also too lazy; looking after flowers and plants is too much work for them. They would never water them.”
What are your plans for the future?
“We’re right next to a main road here and there’s lots of building work going on nearby our company. As long as they don’t build on the sunny side of our greenhouses, I don’t mind it. The city council has no plans yet to build anything in the location of our company. For now, I’m going to continue like this, together with my daughter.”
Wojciech Sliwerski
Company: Dianthus
Place: Warsaw, Poland
Products: 2 million cuttings, bedding plants, potted chrysanthemums and poinsettia
Wojciech Sliwerski: „My company is situated on a main street in Warsaw, lots of cars drive by here. The traffic sometimes gets stuck because people want to have a look at the plants out in the front.”
