Looking for the most beautiful exotic plants in the deepest jungle? Palm grower Herbert Riphagen does not turn his hand around it. Last month his company GardenPalms went bankrupt in Erica, but the grower is not in the deal of. Because the hunt for the most beautiful plants in the jungles of Asia, it will continue.
“Yesterday there were around 150 cars by,” said Palmenkweker Herbert Riphagen. With its 15,000 square meter greenhouse in Erica it is a coming and going of interested parties. Many hobby growers, Riphagen suspects. The grower is often addressed in German. “They want the gems in our range,” he laughs.
The sale in the greenhouse is a direct consequence of the bankruptcy that was pronounced last month about Garden Palms, as the company is called. All tropical plants must have been sold in the coming three months, according to agreements made. In total it concerns 30,000 to 40,000 plants. “But that will be fine.”
Yet Riphagen does not really seem to suffer from the heading of the nursery. “Yes, of course it was hard for me, this is about saying goodbye to a piece of life’s work.” But the seasoned entrepreneur has enough irons in the fire left and right, he says. The greenhouse has been rented and Garden Palms has merged with another company, in which Riphagen is involved as a director. That company is now working on the empty sale of the greenhouse. Furthermore, Riphagen has relations with parties who export to Saudi Arabia and has a strong look at Asia in terms of his plans for the future.
Riphagen says he has already taken into account the loss of his company. He mentions various reasons, in which he also points to a saturation of the market. “Among other things, hardware stores threw themselves on the palm market. In the past they sometimes put down a pallet and got up then. But nowadays they go full for it. As a result, the market has been clapped together.”
The grower focuses on the future with full trust. He is heading towards a row of palm trees with a modest length. “Japanese dwarf palms. Weather resistant, more beautiful and elegant than the average copies. With the latter the leaves sometimes, but not with these plants.” On which he distributes some pieces to the green -adorned little ones, who undergo the blows stoically. “You see, it doesn’t do anything to them. A lot of big chains go on this. This is our new future.”