Belgium large exporter of chrysanthemums
We still associate the plant with the commemoration of our deceased around All Saints' Day. But the chrysanthemum, a little-known Belgian export product, is more than a cemetery flower.
67 years ago, Georges Pieters started growing lettuce and tomatoes professionally in the West Flemish town of Oostnieuwkerke. Nice, but an additional crop would have been welcome. He chose chrysanthemums. At first, he only focused on the production, then he started selling cuttings to other growers in Belgium and France. That hit the mark.
Elien Pieters and her husband now run the award-winning family business Gediflora. The sale of cuttings continues, worldwide now. However, their core activity is breeding: pollinating, crossing and constantly looking for new variants. This makes their typically Belgian bulbous chrysanthemums, the Belgian mums – based on the word chrysanthemum – unique. More than 20 hectares of greenhouses and trial fields now provide a wide range of unique varieties and families, for export around the world. For us, the chrysanthemum is a November flower. in Scandinavia, they look forward to the pink and purple varieties in August. In America, September is the top month and China celebrates its national holiday at the beginning of October with – of course – only yellow and red specimens.
So the chrysanthemum has more to offer than grave decoration alone. Even influencers nowadays are trying to hype up its image on social media as a valuable flower with a wide range of possibilities.