Mike Fernandez

Photo courtesy of Danziger

Greenhouse Management: Why was this the right moment for Danziger to expand this part of its business?

Mike Fernandez: For one, the market has taken a trend towards indoor plants and we can see the new customers we draw in. And when I say new customers, it’s mostly young people. Those are customers that are more connected with indoor plants, and we see it as an opportunity for the future. It’s not that we don’t think we’ll still have demand in annuals and perennials — because we will — but we feel that this will help us carry on further. And we can see that there’s a need for a clean production of foliage plants, which there isn’t much out there right now. Normally, it’s grown under shade or under canopy outdoors and not clean. Our facility in Guatemala, where we also produce annuals and perennials, changes that.

GM: What can you tell me about some of the varieties in this program?

MF: Right now, what we are doing is the bread-and-butter stuff: peperomia, philodendron, pothos and dieffenbachia. There’s also the open market, the commodity products. ... We are starting to breed as well in those classes, but that’s a long-term project, of course. So we plan on doing both, some of the commodity stuff and then also new and exciting stuff.

GM: What do you see Floresta as offering that is different compared to other programs available to growers?

MF: The foliage market, historically, has been very primitive. When I say primitive I mean not clear material, no accurate availability, things like that. Our program is indoors, clean, out of the weather and we run the availability weekly like we do all of our other products. It’s very common in the foliage market that growers order and then only at the end see what they get and it’s often only half of what they ordered. So, for us, more and more of our type of customers — many large growers like Metrolina — are in need of a more accurate program. And a clean program because they are mixing this in their greenhouse with other products. That’s our advantage. And I see this category as being around for a long time. You can go in any city and see that people are connecting with plants through indoor plants, either on the patio or in their houses.