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Ep. 92: Growing Tulips & Dahlias in Holland with FAM Flower Farm
1.9k Plays13 days ago
There are some places on earth that flower people put on a bucket list and never quite cross off. Holland's flower bulb region is one of them. The fields outside Keukenhof, where tulips bloom in waves of color every spring and tourists from around the world stop their cars on the side of the road just to take a picture. For Linda and Marlies of FAM Flower Farm, that landscape is daily life.
Linda and Marlies grew up as friends in middle school, both surrounded by flowers. Linda married Henk, a tulip grower whose family has farmed the same land for 240 years. Marlies married Hubert, whose grandfather was a dahlia man and whose fields now produce millions of dahlia tubers a year. For most of their adult lives, the two friends watched their husbands grow flowers that traveled the world without ever knowing where they ended up.
Then, around a dinner table about seven years ago, an idea was born. Why not show people the beauty of the farm? Why not build a direct relationship with the gardeners who plant these bulbs? FAM Flower Farm became that bridge. A consumer brand built on top of two separate family farms, run by two women who can finish each other's sentences.
In this conversation, we talk about everything from harvesting tulips with machines that mow entire fields in a few hours, to selling complete dahlia clumps instead of dividing them, to what it means to be authentic in a world flooded with AI. We also talk about their new slogan, "Grow Your Own Happiness," and what they want every gardener to feel when they open one of their boxes.
What you'll hear in this episode:
- How two lifelong friends built a global brand on top of two separate family farms
- The magic of Holland's sandy soil and sea climate (and why most dahlia tubers in the world come from a few small kilometers)
- Why FAM ships full dahlia clumps instead of cutting them apart the U.S. way
- How AI, robots, and authenticity are reshaping flower farming in Europe
If this episode stirs something in you, share it with a friend who dreams of growing flowers, or visiting Holland someday. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a conversation.
Show notes: https://thefloweringfarmhouse.com/2026/04/23/ep-92-fam-flower-farm-growing-tulips-and-dahlias-in-holland/
Resources & Links Mentioned
- FAM Flower Farm Website: famflowerfarm.eu (ships within Europe only)
- Instagram: @famflowerfarm
Guest Bio
Linda and Marlies are the lifelong best friends behind FAM Flower Farm, a consumer flower brand rooted in two Dutch family farms in Holland's famous flower bulb region. Linda married into the Vanderslot family, where her husband Henk grows tulip bulbs and cut flowers on land the family has farmed for 240 years. Marlies married Hubert, whose family farm produces over 200 varieties of dahlias for export across Europe. Together, the two women have built a global flower community by sharing the beauty, the seasons, and the real life behind the fields most people only ever see in photos.
Sign up for our podcast newsletter: https://bit.ly/thefloweringfarmhousenewsletter
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Transcript
Intro
Introduction to FAM Flower Farm
00:00:54
Jennifer Gulizia
Today on the Backyard Bouquet podcast, I am joined by Linda and Marlies from FAM Flower Farm, a flower business rooted in two Dutch family farms located in the world-famous flower bulb region in Holland.
Upbringing and Passion for Flowers
00:01:12
Jennifer Gulizia
FAM Flower Farm brings together two families and two farms led by lifelong friends Linda and Marlies, who have both grown up surrounded by flowers and married into farming families.
00:01:25
Jennifer Gulizia
Their shared history and their deep connection to the land laid the foundation for what FAM has become today. For many years, their flowers, bulbs, and tubers traveled all over the world, long before they ever knew who was planting them. With the rise of social media, something
FAM Flower Farm's Philosophy
00:01:44
Jennifer Gulizia
shifted. What was once an an anonymous supply chain has turned into a direct relationship with gardeners and people who now follow along with the Dutch Seasons. plant alongside them and share in the joy of watching flowers grow.
00:02:00
Jennifer Gulizia
FAM doesn't just stand for family. It also represents a feminine approach to flower farming, one that celebrates beauty, storytelling, and connection alongside tradition and hard work.
00:02:13
Jennifer Gulizia
Through their fields, photos, and shared moments from the farm, they invite flower lovers everywhere into the heart of their growing world.
The Host's Welcome and Admiration
00:02:22
Jennifer Gulizia
Linda and Marlies, I'm so excited to have both of you here and to share your story with our listeners. Welcome to the podcast.
00:02:32
Marlies & Linda
Thank you. Hello. Thank you. Nice to be here.
00:02:35
Jennifer Gulizia
ah So excited to chat with both of you. um i hope you'll bear with me today. My voice was gone for about two weeks and it's just now coming back. I wanted to keep our episodes going for our listeners, so I apologize in advance for a little bit of a scratchy voice. But I'm so excited. I've been following the two of you for a long time now, and I just love that you are two friends who have built a business together.
Family History in Flower Farming
00:03:02
Jennifer Gulizia
So for our listeners who may not be familiar with you, can you start by sharing a little bit about your background and how flowers became such an important part of both of your lives?
00:03:15
Marlies & Linda
Of course. I'm Linda. yeah Well, we both grew up here in the flowerwilp region. and yeah So flowers were never something far away. My father was a flower farmer too, and he had summer flowers and greenhouses. And my brother, he took over the business and he's now specialized in growing hydrangea flowers in the greenhouse.
00:03:38
Marlies & Linda
And later on I married Henk who is a tulip grower and he grows both bulbs and flowers. and yeah It's really daily business for us and our kids are working in the farm now too.
00:03:51
Marlies & Linda
And on the field that we are living now, so we have the farm and our house and my my father-in-law living next to us, it's for like for 240 years in our Vanderslot family now.
00:04:04
Jennifer Gulizia
Amazing. That is a legacy business that your family has built.
00:04:08
Marlies & Linda
Yes, it really is.
00:04:08
Jennifer Gulizia
Wow.
00:04:10
Marlies & Linda
It really is a family business.
00:04:13
Jennifer Gulizia
And what about you, Marlies?
The Birth of Their Flower Business
00:04:14
Marlies & Linda
Yes, now my father was not a flower grower. I grew up near the beach in Nordwijk. It's also in the flower region. But my grandfather, he was a bulb grower. So a lot of my uncles and the family was were also bulb growers, but not my own family where I was raised.
00:04:32
Marlies & Linda
um as a kint As a kid, I played a lot around the family farm. And later I worked a lot ah during the school holidays to pick the flowers from the fields in the area here.
00:04:46
Marlies & Linda
And also cleaning the bulbs in summer periods. And later, when I was 18 years old, I met Hubert in the local disco and in Nordwijk. And he was a flower man. So, ah yeah, this is what I met Hubert. And so this is why I became in the business, in the flower business.
00:05:08
Marlies & Linda
And his grandfather already grew dahlias. And his father, he had a big greenhouse with the Santa Paulia flowers. I don't know the plants. are You know them.
00:05:21
Jennifer Gulizia
Say that one again for me.
00:05:21
Marlies & Linda
And he... Santa Paulias? I don't know if it's the English word.
00:05:27
Jennifer Gulizia
I don't know that word.
00:05:27
Marlies & Linda
Now, there were small purple flowers for inside the house in in small pots and they were very popular 20, 25 years ago.
00:05:28
Jennifer Gulizia
I'm going to have to look it up.
00:05:40
Marlies & Linda
But he didn't grow boobs at the fields. His his ah grandfather did, but not his father. So he started growing from his grandfather.
00:05:48
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:05:53
Jennifer Gulizia
Gotcha.
Business Foundations and Operations
00:05:53
Jennifer Gulizia
So both of you have a long lineage of flowers have pretty much always been in your lives.
00:05:59
Marlies & Linda
For sure. Definitely.
00:06:01
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that um you both are so lucky for so many of my listeners and myself included. It's a bucket list dream to visit where you live someday.
00:06:13
Jennifer Gulizia
So this is it's perfect timing for this conversation also because all of these bulbs are about to start blooming ah soon.
00:06:21
Marlies & Linda
Yes, soon in the tulip fields will be a full bloom and the the whole region will be covered with lots of tourists from all over the world.
00:06:21
Jennifer Gulizia
it's
00:06:28
Marlies & Linda
So that always makes us realize how special it is, because for us it's like daily normal life.
00:06:35
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. Well, I want to kind of continue with the beginning here and we'll touch more on the bulbs in a little bit. But the two of you have been friends since middle school.
00:06:47
Jennifer Gulizia
How did you build a business on top of being lifelong best friends?
00:06:55
Marlies & Linda
It was really fun. yeah There was trust already between the two of us. And we ah we are a good couple together. And we do different things in the company, but together we can realize everything.
00:07:12
Marlies & Linda
and That helps us a lot in farming and business. And every day brings other things and something new. ah We can speak honestly together. That's very special. And we make ah quick decision decisions together.
00:07:30
Marlies & Linda
So we're just the two of us. So not a management team or whatever. we can make quick decisions in everything. And we know each other such a long time, so we can laugh together. And it's sometimes it's chaotic everywhere, but we survive together. That's not no problem at all.
00:07:52
Jennifer Gulizia
You said several things there that I think are so important. You mentioned the communication piece, obviously being a big piece of why you are so successful working together.
00:08:03
Jennifer Gulizia
But I love that you also said you can laugh and have fun together because I think
00:08:06
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, very important. And also we started small and now we are we are growing. But when you start small, you know, everything is just fun to do. And during the time you grow and you professionalize and you you get to know things.
00:08:21
Marlies & Linda
So it's not in one day business built, you know.
00:08:25
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. Well, I love that you guys had this idea. I'm super curious. Were your husbands initially on board? Because you said they also work in the business. So did it take some convincing to combine your two businesses and your two farms together?
00:08:42
Marlies & Linda
Well, actually, the guys are still, they still have their own farm. So the farms are still separated because it's it's very different product, different season, different fields, and you cannot put it in one farm.
00:08:46
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:08:54
Marlies & Linda
But the consumer brand that we built together, that's the connection between between between the two farms.
00:09:01
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay. So there's there's separate pieces and then you two work together.
00:09:05
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, yeah, the consumer part is, yeah, yeah.
00:09:05
Jennifer Gulizia
Thank you for that clarification. Okay.
00:09:09
Marlies & Linda
So the guys were always, from the beginning, they said, okay, well well, see what you do. They did not really understand in the beginning. And they said, do your thing, go and take pictures and we'll help you. Because they had like a truck and they had cars and they had crates. And we had lots of stuff that we can use in the beginning because we had nothing.
00:09:27
Marlies & Linda
So they helped us to build. And later on, we more professionalized them.
00:09:33
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that. So take us back. You mentioned you started small in the beginning. What did that look like as you were so starting out with this dream together?
00:09:43
Marlies & Linda
Yes, well, we we both had our own careers because we we never worked at the farms. Marlise was a construction engineer, so she did something completely different.
00:09:54
Marlies & Linda
I always worked in the different sales and marketing jobs in flower business. So for me, it was a bit closer to my my work.
Social Media and Community Building
00:10:01
Marlies & Linda
And say ah during one of the dinners we had so with school friends, we were talking about this the business of the of both Hubert and Henk. And they say we always say they are so passionate, they put so much effort in it, so much time every week. and But in the end, the products go to a wholesale or export company and you never hear anything back.
00:10:24
Marlies & Linda
You cannot control the prices and it's just you sell it and that's it. And then we say, okay, we live in the Keukenhof area. So all the people, all the tourists coming to the tulip fields and everybody is so enthusiastic.
00:10:38
Marlies & Linda
And we say we need to share more and show more the beauty of the farm and not only bulbs and machines and tractors, but show the beautiful side, the romantic side, but also do more storytelling about seasons and what's happening on the farm.
00:10:54
Marlies & Linda
And that's actually why we said, OK, let's join, because we have the tulips and the narcissus and Marlies had the dahlias. So it's a perfect combination of seasons and and selling tubers and bulbs.
00:11:09
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:11:09
Marlies & Linda
And I think it was almost seven years ago, we just went into the narcissus field and we started to post on Instagram some really nice movies and we put our daughters in the field with a nice basket full of flowers and a nice dress on.
00:11:24
Marlies & Linda
And yeah, within a few months, we were building a whole flower community and people were so enthusiastic to to follow and to share it. And it was ah ah a different time than and with Instagram then than
Impact of the Pandemic on Business
00:11:36
Marlies & Linda
it is now. So there were less ah less people doing that.
00:11:41
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. You started about the same time that I did. i um started my flower farm eight years ago, and there really weren't a lot of people sharing pictures yet on Instagram.
00:11:47
Marlies & Linda
Okay, yeah.
00:11:50
Marlies & Linda
No.
00:11:52
Jennifer Gulizia
It was a lot easier to have a larger reach.
00:11:53
Marlies & Linda
Yes, you have your attention.
00:11:56
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. But you were very quick to build a brand with that storytelling.
00:12:03
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, we also had COVID, of course, which was very bad for the world, but was good for gardening business.
00:12:06
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes. Yes.
00:12:10
Marlies & Linda
So we had a good kickstart with COVID back then.
00:12:14
Jennifer Gulizia
Everyone wanted flowers then.
00:12:16
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, working in the garden, that's the only thing you could do, stay at home and order shondahlia online. So that was very good.
00:12:24
Jennifer Gulizia
So you started with an idea and you started telling stories on social media. Did you know right away that you were going to create a business selling bulbs around Europe at that time?
Balancing E-commerce and Farming
00:12:38
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, well, from the start, we we thought about it on a professional way. We didn't want to, we didn't search for a hobby. We were searching for a new way to get a living and also to help our husband, you know, to make a different way of different market approach.
00:12:56
Marlies & Linda
And that is something as as you are a grower, that's why we have a lot of... We we know how much work it is to grow flowers, to grow bulbs, and then also do e-commerce business. It's almost impossible to do together.
00:13:10
Marlies & Linda
So ah we realized that you guys in the US, there are lots of flower farmers who who do it, both selling and making bouquets and do Instagram and all the e-commerce things. So...
00:13:22
Marlies & Linda
It's not easy, so it's good to have it separate, but also a little bit combined for us.
00:13:28
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. Will you grow at such scale that I think it would be really hard to do it all by yourself? I think there's a lot of us here in the US that do what you said, but we are much smaller scale perhaps than what you're doing.
00:13:35
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:13:42
Jennifer Gulizia
Or we've built teams like the two of you have built teams to be able to have multiple channels because it's a lot to plant the flowers, sell them to your community, try and also have the online sales and manage the platforms and The shipping, I mean, you have to learn how to create a warehouse system and a structure.
00:13:46
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:13:59
Marlies & Linda
Yep.
00:14:03
Marlies & Linda
The mailbox, ah the the direct
Friendship and Business Challenges
00:14:04
Marlies & Linda
messages, everything.
00:14:06
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes.
00:14:07
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:14:09
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes, all of it becomes a full-time job. So I love that you both have different backgrounds.
00:14:12
Marlies & Linda
yeah
00:14:16
Jennifer Gulizia
Did you find that those two backgrounds really complemented each other in building a strong, structured business?
00:14:23
Marlies & Linda
Yes, for sure. yeah but But we've only found out later because we were just friends, you know, you don't know each other out in work, work life. But it turned out very, very good because we both have our own specialties and the things we love to do or not, not. So we give it to the other one who loves to do it.
00:14:43
Marlies & Linda
So we have a very good team. Yeah, makes life a lot easier.
00:14:47
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. Well, that's amazing that you can share some of those responsibilities and have
AI's Role in Farming and Storytelling
00:14:51
Jennifer Gulizia
someone to bounce back.
00:14:51
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:14:52
Jennifer Gulizia
But like you just said, friendships are very different than a business partnership, and a lot of people can't combine the two.
00:14:58
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:15:02
Jennifer Gulizia
What do you think has made it so successful?
00:15:08
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, well, I think it's also like it's a little bit of personal. It's like real life. We want to show the real farm, also the struggles and also the seasons, but also like the beauty and all that that combines. And I hope people really see because now with all the AI stuff that's coming by, we try to tell an honest story and make it realistic.
00:15:34
Marlies & Linda
And also we want to make people enthusiastic and hope as we both are enthusiastic about the product, about the flowers, we hope we can bring it over to the audience. And so they get to start in the garden, only a small garden or put some wilps in a pot, you know, and enjoy. Yes.
00:15:51
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. Well, you started at the right time before a i was really in the scene.
00:15:55
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:15:56
Jennifer Gulizia
So you've had the opportunity to build an authentic brand.
00:16:00
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:16:01
Jennifer Gulizia
And I don't know about in Holland because I know that English is your second language as we were talking about before we hit record. But the word I keep hearing this year is how important authenticity is.
00:16:12
Marlies & Linda
Yes.
00:16:13
Jennifer Gulizia
And you've been doing that since day one. People see your faces. They see your children.
00:16:17
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:16:18
Jennifer Gulizia
They see your family's They know that it's a real person behind this brand.
00:16:22
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, well, this week someone commented on my ah picture that it was AI, so I almost cried. No, it's not a i It's so such beautiful. You can't believe
00:16:34
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes. Well, that's the hard thing is that a lot of this AI content that's now coming out is so realistic
00:16:39
Marlies & Linda
Yeah. It's hard to see the difference. Yeah.
00:16:43
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. Especially, I mean, I watched a video that was very clearly AI on Facebook yesterday, and it was someone, they took all of these egg cartons and made a butterfly on their land.
00:16:55
Marlies & Linda
Oh, I saw it too.
00:16:55
Jennifer Gulizia
And then, yeah, the tulips that popped up, and I'm going, well, i in Holland, you see all of these tulips everywhere that almost doesn't seem real for us that have never experienced it before.
00:16:56
Marlies & Linda
It popped out.
00:17:10
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:17:12
Jennifer Gulizia
So...
00:17:14
Marlies & Linda
It will be challenging, I think, in the coming years. Yeah.
00:17:17
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes. Well, I think I just attended a summit on AI and learned a lot that I found very fascinating. But I think the common thread was that as business owners, we have to continually keep showing our face and telling our story because that's that human connection that AI can never replicate.
00:17:30
Marlies & Linda
Yeah. Yeah.
00:17:35
Marlies & Linda
yeah Yeah, well, you can even get your own avatar.
00:17:39
Jennifer Gulizia
absolutely. Absolutely.
00:17:40
Marlies & Linda
yeah Because we are not so good in talking to the camera. So we we prefer to like show the products and show the fields and also tell something, but not really speaking up to the camera. But I think we have to make the step in the short term.
00:17:56
Jennifer Gulizia
But even you've, for years, I've seen your guy the two of you ladies with your pictures and you you up appear in the photos so people know who the human is behind your brand.
00:17:59
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:18:05
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, I hope so.
00:18:08
Jennifer Gulizia
So um let's see here. I'm getting off track on our questions that I had pre-sent you. I apologize. I'm curious, how do you balance family life, your friendship, and farming all together?
Involving the Next Generation
00:18:26
Marlies & Linda
Well, ah yeah farming is not a switch. You cannot say on or off. It's always there.
00:18:33
Jennifer Gulizia
Totally.
00:18:34
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, for sure. But the family life is all is also very important for us. It's always a challenge to find the right balance for us. so And the seasons are very busy.
00:18:47
Marlies & Linda
So, yeah, every I think every other family has the same ah ah problems too with busy periods and your family because we all have kids, we have parents and we want to go everywhere.
00:19:03
Marlies & Linda
And yeah what makes it easier is we work at home. So when the children are at home, We are in the area of the children, not always directly, but stay they stay at home or they do schoolwork or whatever. So we are not always on the on an office ah far away from the farm. So we work at home.
00:19:28
Marlies & Linda
So the children raised at the farm. So I think this is also very important for good family life. And, yeah, it's the seasons bring also quiet times in the in the in the winter for us.
00:19:45
Marlies & Linda
And then we have time to go for a holiday with the family and that kind of thing. so But it's never a dull moment. It's always something happening.
00:19:53
Jennifer Gulizia
Always something.
00:19:54
Marlies & Linda
but um Yeah, but the children don't. It always has been this way of life, so they're used to it.
00:20:01
Jennifer Gulizia
Well, I'm sure they're learning amazing work ethic from the two of you. How old are your kids, both of you?
00:20:09
Marlies & Linda
I have two daughters. um My daughter, Britt, she 21. She just went 21 and she's really working on the farm now, full time.
00:20:18
Jennifer Gulizia
Amazing.
00:20:19
Marlies & Linda
And the youngest is 17 and she's doing agribusiness education. So maybe she will do something with farming or every agriculture too. So we'll see. And I have a daughter, she's 21 years old and she studies more about agriculture ah Physics?
00:20:38
Marlies & Linda
they like Psychology? yeah more ah
00:20:43
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:20:43
Marlies & Linda
Yeah. And ah my son, he is studying in a technical university. So he's more about the machines and he starts now a special product, but about ah machines in agriculture world.
00:20:59
Marlies & Linda
There's the connection again.
00:21:00
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay. it's It's in their blood. they They've grown up around it.
00:21:03
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, yeah.
00:21:05
Jennifer Gulizia
So your children are beyond the little kid stage now, and they are becoming adults themselves.
00:21:09
Marlies & Linda
Yeah. Yeah. But it was fun because we had we took the first picture seven years ago. So my daughter, no, it was longer ago, seven or eight, but she was like with a small dress on in the fields with the baskets and she was only nine years old. So now she's 17. So it's a big difference. Yes.
00:21:27
Jennifer Gulizia
It happens so fast. Mine's 11. And I think back to when she would see a little ladybug and be three years old and be like, ladybug. And now it changes so fast.
00:21:34
Marlies & Linda
it is fan
00:21:38
Jennifer Gulizia
howy With your children now being almost all in their 20s, how does this shape the way you think about the future of farming and your business?
00:21:49
Marlies & Linda
Well, there's big differences because when you look at my father-in-law, for example, who used to run the tulip farm business, also together with his brother and his father, yeah he's now 81 years old, so he's still walking around that farm and he's driving the tractor wherever he can and he's know having a vegetables and animals.
00:22:13
Marlies & Linda
And even last year he broke his leg, but we put him in his real wheelchair on the tractor so we could enjoy the tulips blooming.
00:22:16
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh.
00:22:20
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh my goodness.
00:22:22
Marlies & Linda
He doesn't have a hobby. Work is his hobby. So that's a bit different than from ah from ah our husbands. what it does Our husbands are like focusing more on sustainability improvements and more technical things and trying to improve on every level, like healthy soil, smarter crop growing, all those kind of things.
00:22:44
Marlies & Linda
And yeah, it comes with a lot of investments because investments are high with techniques, with robots, with AI, all that stuff. And it needs to be invented. So the prices are high.
00:22:56
Marlies & Linda
And yeah, and our kids, it's it's again different. They realize how hard work it is to run a farm. So I'm not sure if they will take over.
00:23:07
Marlies & Linda
But in all the times that they were working on the farm, they learned to like work hard and not give up.
AI and Robotics in Agriculture
00:23:13
Marlies & Linda
And and ah yeah, it's the nature is challenging, you know, every year it's different and not the season is the same. So I think that's something that you, that they will always bear in mind and whatever they will do in the future, it will bring them further.
00:23:29
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. Well, the resilience and the lessons that they learn growing up around this is so important.
00:23:32
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:23:38
Jennifer Gulizia
Sticking with those same lines, this wasn't on my list of questions that I sent you, but I'm curious because we've mentioned AI a couple times. And there's so much that I have not explored around the realm of AI. Are you seeing AI start to trickle in, especially with your husband's lines of work with automation of the farming
00:24:01
Marlies & Linda
Yes, for sure. I think about ah at this list of like weeding machines, for example, they and they can see with AI the difference between growing of a tulip or growing of a weed and then they can just make the weed go away.
00:24:15
Jennifer Gulizia
Whoa. whoa
00:24:16
Marlies & Linda
and they they can With heat, they can they make it warm and then the heat goes away. Yeah, there's and they're learning now the machine. Yeah, they get smarter and smarter. It will definitely be the future because finding people to do that work is also very hard. It's getting very expensive.
00:24:37
Marlies & Linda
So, yeah, the robots will need to take over a lot of that work and they have to yeah get better and better.
00:24:44
Jennifer Gulizia
So you're seeing robots in the fields already in Holland?
00:24:47
Marlies & Linda
yes sure we have robots driving 24 hours a day on the fields with nobody there they're just programmed and they're just going up in front of the fields and they are sending their data and and as a grower you can read the data and see how many virus plants you have this year in your crop for example yeah
00:24:54
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh.
00:25:10
Jennifer Gulizia
It can tell you the virus? wow, it's crazy to think about how much this industry is going to change in the next five years.
00:25:18
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, it is. Yeah. And with all the demands that there are on the sustainability, we also need to change. So we need to, we really need those like mechanical things or robots or AI things that can replace that. So that's good.
00:25:35
Jennifer Gulizia
I appreciate that you are having this conversation with me.
00:25:35
Marlies & Linda
It's
00:25:38
Jennifer Gulizia
Are you fearful of AI coming into your business?
00:25:43
Marlies & Linda
Well, yes and no, because in know in my daily life, it helps me a lot behind the computer. It makes me ah easy talk with everyone in the world. I can again answer in Russia and I can whatever.
00:25:56
Jennifer Gulizia
Unbelievable.
00:25:57
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, so there's a lot of yeah advantages. But yeah, but as you said, it's also it will also be complicated with the videos and you you don't know what you see.
00:26:08
Marlies & Linda
What you see now, for example, in the wars, is it a real video or are we just... getting mad on each other on something, something that we just, you know, made up.
00:26:16
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. Absolutely.
00:26:20
Jennifer Gulizia
I watched some videos be created last weekend, um and they were done in about two minutes, and they were cinematic quality with the words of whatever the person wanted their ad to be.
00:26:27
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:26:31
Marlies & Linda
yeah
00:26:32
Jennifer Gulizia
And I'm going, how is how are we going to realize what is real and what's not?
00:26:37
Marlies & Linda
that they can Yeah, they can record your voice and they can make a whole video with your voice and they can call someone with your voice, you know. How are all the people, how are they ever going to find out how that works?
00:26:50
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes. Well, I'm sorry. I'm very much diverging here on our conversation, but I think it's something that's an important conversation to have.
00:26:55
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:27:00
Jennifer Gulizia
I think other countries are a lot more advanced than the U.S., so it's interesting to hear what you're doing in Holland because I i think we're almost behind in the
Insights for International Farmers
00:27:10
Jennifer Gulizia
U.S.
00:27:10
Jennifer Gulizia
and Maybe I'm just in a bubble here, but at least that's my perception of what's happening in farming. um Small scale with flower farming, I think other industries, because they're larger, are probably getting more information.
00:27:19
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:27:24
Jennifer Gulizia
But as flower farmers in the U.S., s so many of us farm on less than an acre that we are so micro scale that we don't get some of this.
00:27:30
Marlies & Linda
Yeah. Yeah. well it think it's good students to to watch at the Instagram in Europe and see the farmers there because we get a lot of questions of of people also from US, like, how do you plant them?
00:27:43
Marlies & Linda
How much do you plant? What soil do you use? So they just ask us and we we always give answers. so
00:27:48
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes. Well, I appreciate how freely you share your information. And I think that's why you've built such a large following all over Europe.
00:27:57
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, well, it's the it's a big fun part of it to share it and to make people enthusiastic and do it themselves.
00:28:04
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes. Well, I'll try and get us back on our questions that I had pre-sent to you so I don't throw you off too much with the language barrier today.
00:28:08
Marlies & Linda
ah ah Where were you? but
00:28:12
Jennifer Gulizia
um But this segues well into this next set of questions. um You grow in an area that is so deeply tied to our floral roots.
00:28:23
Jennifer Gulizia
What does it mean to you to grow flowers in a place that has so much
Holland's Floral Beauty and Tourism
00:28:28
Jennifer Gulizia
floral history? Yeah.
00:28:30
Marlies & Linda
and This region is very iconic. It's a special, it's it's really every year it's special again and the flowers are in full bloom. So people from all over the world come to visit this area in in the Netherlands.
00:28:45
Marlies & Linda
And it's in springtime, it's for weeks, it's so beautiful. and If you're driving here in your car, you always have to take care for all the people in in the car, in the other cars, because, oh, they see a field, stop. Yeah, turn the car on the on side of the road. And yeah, it's a special area to live. And for sure, these weeks, the the coming weeks in spring, because there are fields full of color everywhere around us.
00:29:16
Marlies & Linda
So I live in the middle of... ah of the fields all around my house, it will be so beautiful at the coming weeks. And now it's yellow and soon it will be purple from the highest since and pink. And it's the best time of the year. And in the area here from the Keukhov, millions and millions of people visit from all over the world. It's a real bucket list thing for a lot of people. And we understand it is a beauty to visit. I hope everybody can visit the area once in their life.
00:29:49
Marlies & Linda
And it it was a challenge, the seasons, because we have ah but both farms, have we are in the same season, but we have different seasons, like harvesting and planting season is opposite.
00:29:50
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes.
00:30:01
Marlies & Linda
So example, when the tulips flowering,
00:30:01
Jennifer Gulizia
Right.
00:30:04
Marlies & Linda
within did a few weeks and now we are selling the dahlia bulbs and when the dahlia field is in full bloom in september we are selling the flower bulbs so for the consumer sometimes it's hard to understand why something is flow when something is flowering when you have to plant it so we try to keep on learning and saying that
00:30:25
Jennifer Gulizia
So you're really juggling two crops at the same time. So right now you mentioned it's almost the tulips. And by the time this episode comes out, the tulips will probably be in full bloom and you'll be shipping Dahlia tubers all over Europe at that time.
00:30:39
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, yeah
00:30:42
Jennifer Gulizia
So are you and your business actually harvesting the tulips also or is that through your husband's business?
Tulip and Dahlia Farming Techniques
00:30:50
Marlies & Linda
yeah we are glad the husbands are doing this and they have good machines for that too. Yeah.
00:30:54
Jennifer Gulizia
They have machines that are harvesting all the tulips.
00:30:56
Marlies & Linda
yeah yeah yeah
00:30:58
Jennifer Gulizia
Are those automated also?
00:31:00
Marlies & Linda
ah Not fully, but they have to be there, but like a one or two people job. And they like a big field from like ah for four, I would say it acres, hectares, 10 acres, a few hours and all the flowers are gone.
00:31:13
Marlies & Linda
They just cut off the flower heads.
00:31:14
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, my goodness.
00:31:17
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, that's amazing. Do you share videos of that?
00:31:20
Marlies & Linda
Yes, it's always going viral and we always have a lots of views. Everybody is crying.
00:31:26
Jennifer Gulizia
I'm going to have to watch for that.
00:31:28
Marlies & Linda
yeah
00:31:28
Jennifer Gulizia
That is just sounds, wow, that's impressive. Because it's such a labor-intensive thing for us U.S. farmers. We're literally pulling tulips out of crates all day long for a couple thousand.
00:31:40
Jennifer Gulizia
so
00:31:41
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, but in the Netherlands you also have a lot of difference because my husband is also growing flowers in the greenhouse, tulip flowers now, these these months until like April. And we are just a small greenhouse.
00:31:52
Marlies & Linda
But you have like the real factories, we call it tulip factories. And they are bunching hundreds of thousands of of bunches every day. You know, it's unbelievable. They have like eight robots making bunches.
00:32:07
Marlies & Linda
And it's so different as ah as how we do it. So there's lots of differences within the Netherlands too.
00:32:10
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, my.
00:32:13
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, I'm sure, especially probably based on scale.
00:32:16
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:32:17
Jennifer Gulizia
And so do you grow all of the tulips or do you have a specialty that your farm is growing?
00:32:25
Marlies & Linda
Well, my husband is mainly focusing on cut flowers. So he's producing the bulbs for cut flowers.
00:32:29
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:32:31
Marlies & Linda
So we can both use them in his own greenhouse or he can sell them to other growers who want to grow them. But we also sell them, of course, for the consumer business because it's ah just a flower bulb that's good for cutting, but you can also put it in your garden.
00:32:45
Marlies & Linda
So that's no problem.
00:32:46
Jennifer Gulizia
So your main, through your husband's side of the business, the main goal is to sell the bulbs, not the flowers themselves.
00:32:55
Marlies & Linda
No, no, no. Yeah, only the bilps. Yeah.
00:32:58
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay. And how long does that take? That's quite a process, isn't it, before they can actually be sold as a cut flower or to be grown as a cut flower?
00:33:07
Marlies & Linda
ah Yeah, well, it's it's like a two year process. One year you need to grow the bilp and the next year you can grow the flower and then you can plant back to bilps again. Maybe you know the process. Some wilps are thrown away, but you can also plant them again. and they They can grow another year, and then the year after you can use them again for ah growing flowers.
00:33:28
Jennifer Gulizia
So there's one year of resting before they can be grown again.
00:33:31
Marlies & Linda
Yeah. Yeah, and we have like, there's a difference between like the planting material, the smaller bilbs, they need to grow more, so they get, they're planting that back in the fields every year, and they, the bilbs will grow and multiply, so you get more bilbs, but also bigger bilbs, and the bigger sizes are good for growing your flowers, and the smaller ones are again going into the ground for another a year of growth.
00:33:55
Jennifer Gulizia
So I'm curious, do you think it's silly that U.S. flower farmers throw away the bulbs after the year? Should we be saving them and letting them grow for a year and then harvesting them a year later?
00:34:05
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, well, it's another job you have. It's another ah year round process to, you know, you have to plan them, you have to and search for virus, you have to cut off the flowers, you have to harvest, you have to dry, you have to clean, you have to sorting on size. So you have another business. So you, I can understand you don't have time for that and just focus on your flower business.
00:34:29
Jennifer Gulizia
That's a good point, especially with the cost of tulip bulbs in particular.
00:34:31
Marlies & Linda
Yes.
00:34:32
Jennifer Gulizia
They're so cheap.
00:34:34
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, but also the process of growing the bulbs in the Netherlands, I think our and circumstances are much easier than that you have in the U.S. in most areas.
00:34:44
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, absolutely. And so, Marlies, your field focuses on dahlias.
00:34:50
Marlies & Linda
Yes, we grow more than 200 different varieties.
00:34:51
Jennifer Gulizia
Are you 200 varieties?
00:34:54
Marlies & Linda
More than 200 varieties, yes.
00:34:57
Jennifer Gulizia
And how many plants do you think you grow?
00:35:00
Marlies & Linda
Oh, millions. Millions.
00:35:02
Jennifer Gulizia
Millions. Oh my gosh.
00:35:03
Marlies & Linda
that For sure. Yes. And we grow mainly the more exclusive varieties.
00:35:05
Jennifer Gulizia
You say it. so
00:35:10
Marlies & Linda
They're also standard Dahlia varieties. You can buy it every shop. But we mainly grow the more exclusive varieties.
00:35:21
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay. Are you also hybridizing or just growing known varieties?
00:35:26
Marlies & Linda
No, no, not by ourselves. We have breeders and yeah Sometimes we can buy a new variety and then we try. But it's well it's always different because dahlias, there are so many varieties. It's so easy to grow a new variety, but it's more about that people are going to buy the new variety.
00:35:48
Marlies & Linda
So the problem is not to find a new flower, but to sell a new flower.
00:35:48
Jennifer Gulizia
you
00:35:52
Marlies & Linda
And this is something we see in the beginning. and It was very difficult if we have a new variety for for my husband. to sell it to companies, but now we have our own Instagram and also the the people who buy from the US, for example, for the shops, they follow us and they see the new varieties and now they ask the export companies, can we please buy these varieties?
00:36:16
Marlies & Linda
So it helps our husbands to sell new varieties in the world.
00:36:23
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. So all of the bulbs that you are selling from both farms or from Fam Flower Farm are coming from your husband's flower fields.
00:36:34
Jennifer Gulizia
Is that correct?
00:36:35
Marlies & Linda
yes Yes, all dahlias are coming from there from our own fields.
00:36:39
Jennifer Gulizia
That's amazing. So you're not having to source them from elsewhere. You're able to support the family businesses and
00:36:43
Marlies & Linda
as you Yes, we have so many varieties, we have more than enough. So we don't sell all of them every year. Sometimes we choose some other varieties.
00:36:55
Jennifer Gulizia
Amazing. So with the dahlia side, are you growing pot tubers or are you growing for clumps? How do you do that to then sell out to Europe? Because I know a lot of people in Europe do this process differently than in the U.S.,
00:37:10
Marlies & Linda
Yes, for sure. There's a big difference. and We see a lot of discussion about it on social media. We grow the complete clumps. So you plant the complete clump and we do not cut ah parts of the legs or whatever.
00:37:28
Marlies & Linda
So they will always start a new plant and yeah, that's that's normal for us.
00:37:32
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes.
00:37:34
Marlies & Linda
And we do not do the US way, ah digging by hands and cutting in, ah i don't know how many, you can make a lot of plants again.
00:37:45
Jennifer Gulizia
yes
00:37:45
Marlies & Linda
we We just sell for another price, the whole clump and yeah, but we do mechanically. So sometimes, there are smaller or broken legs, but it has no problem at all because there will always start at least one, two, three, four, five ah new sprouts from the original tuber.
00:38:07
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. Now, I'm curious, though, if you're digging up the entire clump and selling it, how are you ah replicating them? How are you getting more plants?
00:38:18
Jennifer Gulizia
Are you taking cuttings?
00:38:20
Marlies & Linda
Cuttings, yes, we start from cuttings.
00:38:22
Jennifer Gulizia
You start from cuttings, and every one of them gives you more tubers the following year.
00:38:24
Marlies & Linda
is
00:38:27
Marlies & Linda
Yes, for sure. yeah
00:38:29
Jennifer Gulizia
do you have any tips on
00:38:30
Marlies & Linda
From one um one ah tuber, maybe you can make 15 or 20 new plants.
00:38:34
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay, so you're getting even more than us dividing a clump and getting five or seven plants.
00:38:38
Marlies & Linda
Yes, for sure. It's another way of multiplying.
00:38:42
Jennifer Gulizia
Do you have any?
00:38:42
Marlies & Linda
it's another it's another way of multiply
00:38:46
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes. Do you have a tip for that? I know some people, a lot of people in the U.S. struggle when they grow from cuttings to get a good solid clump the following year. Is it that you just have amazing soil in Holland or is there a secret to getting cuttings to produce good clumps?
00:39:05
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, I don't know. yeah The sandy soil oh we yeah sandy soil and the climate, because we live nearby the sea and we we know the temperatures and the the length of the the season is very important because we know they tried it in so many other areas in the Netherlands or also in other countries. But in the end, they you cannot ah keep them good in the winter.
00:39:33
Marlies & Linda
because in this area, all export companies want ah to buy only tubers growing from our sandy soil. And it's a very small. It's just a few locations in our area where you can grow grow them and not when it's it's another kind of soil.
00:39:50
Marlies & Linda
It doesn't work. And if it's too hot, it doesn't work. So also in other parts of the Netherlands, you can't grow them. I think, no, and no, no.
00:39:58
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, really?
00:39:59
Marlies & Linda
I think more than 90% of the bulb of the dahlia tubers are coming from our area it's only a few kilometers but this is the best fuel and the best temperatures and the sea climate and that makes it the best yeah the best quality for tubers
00:40:09
Jennifer Gulizia
Amazing.
00:40:18
Jennifer Gulizia
Perfect. That's probably why in the US, the Skagit Valley in Washington, Does so well.
00:40:23
Marlies & Linda
yeah it's more yeah
00:40:24
Jennifer Gulizia
They have all their tulips and they also have so many dahlia growers up there. Now, Linda, you said mowing them down. Is that part of the trick for getting good tubers?
00:40:34
Marlies & Linda
yeah yeah that's me Yeah, it's always sad to see, but the whole summer, so they are planted in like April, May. The whole summer there's the mowing machine and almost every week or every other 10 days, the whole field is just mown off. So no flowers are growing. It's just green leaves. And as soon as the the flower starts to pop out, whatp there is the mowing machine again. So they keep it short. So all the energy will go to the tuber.
00:41:01
Jennifer Gulizia
Got it. Okay. So it's very different than someone that's growing them for cut flower production.
00:41:05
Marlies & Linda
million that
00:41:07
Jennifer Gulizia
So now how do you get your beautiful dahlia photos then? Do you have an area that you reserve to bloom?
00:41:14
Marlies & Linda
Yes, this is the field where we make the tubers for the new cuttings for the next year.
00:41:20
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:41:21
Marlies & Linda
So we plant them all, yeah, a lot of all varieties in the fields and we control these plants every week.
00:41:21
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:41:29
Marlies & Linda
So we are sure we make the new cuttings from good, healthy plants. And this these are the plants that are in full bloom at our field. It's the modern material.
00:41:38
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay. So you can see what you're getting and test them for virus or look for signs of virus and all of that.
00:41:43
Marlies & Linda
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. And there's even in the Netherlands, we have an inspection agency. And when we say the lot is clean, we have checked it several times and there's no different varieties or any stick or whatever in there. And the inspection agency comes and they're going to check if you have done your job well and they approve and say, OK, now you can mow it off because now we know the lot is clean and there's no mixtures or whatever. And the cuttings next year will be good as well.
00:42:16
Jennifer Gulizia
such a fascinating process at scale compared to our small, probably you call them like backyard settings that we're doing here. i mean, I grow about 5,000 dahlias and it feels like so many.
00:42:25
Marlies & Linda
but this
00:42:28
Jennifer Gulizia
And then you say you grow millions and I'm like, oh, I'm just like a little drop in the bucket.
00:42:33
Marlies & Linda
You cannot compare it.
00:42:35
Jennifer Gulizia
No, but I want to see it. I want to see it so badly now.
00:42:38
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:42:38
Jennifer Gulizia
It sounds so incredible and such, such interesting processes. um I think it's,
00:42:44
Marlies & Linda
Oh yeah. You need to come in September when the field is in bloom.
00:42:47
Jennifer Gulizia
ah yeah Oh, I would love to do that.
00:42:47
Marlies & Linda
Then we'll see. We call it a candy store. You can walk into the candy store and search all those 200 varieties.
00:42:55
Jennifer Gulizia
It would be like a kid in a candy store. The problem would be that I can't bring them back to the U.S. with me.
00:43:00
Marlies & Linda
ah
Customer Relationships and Online Presence
00:43:03
Jennifer Gulizia
You don't ship to the U.S., do you, with your bulbs?
00:43:06
Marlies & Linda
No, no. It's too complicated for us ah to get all the control documents to consumers.
00:43:14
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely.
00:43:15
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, it's too expensive and too complicated. So we only ship to Europe countries. But there are a lot of export companies who do export our bulbs, our varieties to the US as well.
00:43:27
Marlies & Linda
So there are some names or export import companies where you can get our varieties as well.
00:43:28
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh.
00:43:33
Jennifer Gulizia
Are you allowed to share those names on here or is that confidential?
00:43:37
Marlies & Linda
Do you know? No, I don't know. No, that there's there's a company in the Netherlands and then it goes to a broker, I think it's called.
00:43:44
Jennifer Gulizia
Got it.
00:43:44
Marlies & Linda
in the US and there are always two or three companies between before it is summer. But look for the varieties and you'll will probably find it.
00:43:56
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay, that's good tip advice.
00:43:57
Marlies & Linda
Variety names.
00:43:59
Jennifer Gulizia
I live in a very heavy agricultural area. We're one of the largest exporters of pears and cherries. And so it's almost our agricultural time of year where hundreds of thousands of people drive through.
00:44:05
Marlies & Linda
Oh.
00:44:11
Jennifer Gulizia
We have what's called the Hood River Fruit Loop because all the orchard trees are in ball bloom. So it's a sea of orchard trees. So if you ever can sneak away, we'd love to have you here to see that too.
00:44:21
Marlies & Linda
Oh, that's nice. Sounds good too.
00:44:22
Jennifer Gulizia
But it's interesting.
00:44:24
Marlies & Linda
ah
00:44:24
Jennifer Gulizia
There's so many layers because I watch the other farms around me that are all orchards. And it's like they have a packing house and then it goes to a distributor and then it goes somewhere else. And it's like who knows how many layers it's processing through before you actually get that fruit.
00:44:36
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:44:39
Marlies & Linda
Yeah. And that's that's sort the the big difference between the company of our husband and our company is because we are really in dialect contact. We just talk with our customers.
00:44:50
Marlies & Linda
we We have the connection there and that's so much fun.
00:44:53
Jennifer Gulizia
Which is amazing. You're really creating a direct-to-consumer experience in an industry in Holland that is so at scale that you rarely get to know the farmer.
00:44:57
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:45:02
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:45:04
Jennifer Gulizia
So that's really unique.
00:45:05
Marlies & Linda
Loppe, yeah and it's always fun because people say they want to visit us and and and go into the Tulip fields because they say you have the most beautiful Tulip farm in the world, but you know, there are like 500 other Tulip farms, but they don't show it.
00:45:20
Marlies & Linda
Jaa Loppe,
00:45:20
Jennifer Gulizia
Right. it It makes a huge difference when you show up and you show what you have and then people feel that connection.
00:45:25
Marlies & Linda
yeah.
00:45:28
Jennifer Gulizia
um What has changed in your business since you started sharing your story online?
00:45:36
Marlies & Linda
Ooh. Yeah, well, what not? um Yeah, it's also, we we so often say to each other, ah more and more realize how special it is. And because for us, we also grew up in this area and we saw it every season and there it is again. and But we really want to tell also our kids and say, look around you and and and see how see the beauty of it and how unique it is.
00:46:06
Marlies & Linda
um But um yeah what's also fun is that when we are shipping our boxes and the consumers receive their box and we see them making unboxing videos and we see how they plant them and we see how they grow them and how they enjoy that they cut a bouquet of flowers.
00:46:24
Marlies & Linda
And that's a world of difference, you know getting to see that and also getting feedback and questions.
00:46:30
Jennifer Gulizia
you
00:46:31
Marlies & Linda
So we're learning also a lot from the customers.
00:46:35
Jennifer Gulizia
That experience, getting to watch them unbox it, must be such good feedback, like you said, also to see how is the customer receiving this and what are
00:46:38
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:46:46
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
Gardening's Impact on Well-being
00:46:46
Jennifer Gulizia
they doing with it.
00:46:47
Jennifer Gulizia
And it probably gives you new ideas for your business as well.
00:46:49
Marlies & Linda
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And then, yeah, that's
00:46:52
Jennifer Gulizia
Is there...
00:46:53
Marlies & Linda
Gives a lot of energy also to see the deck.
00:46:56
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. It's so rewarding to see people enjoying, because we work in such a special industry that's creating beauty. So to see how people are receiving that is really something special.
00:47:05
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:47:10
Jennifer Gulizia
Is there a message or reaction from any of your customers that has particularly stayed with you when you've watched one of those unboxing videos or a message you have received?
00:47:21
Marlies & Linda
Well, yeah, it's it's often the small things like, you know, I've never planted something and now I have flowers in my garden or I had so much fun planting with the kids and they were so enthusiastic. They want to remove all the grass and we grow more flowers or stuff like that. Just the small, the small experiences of people who are happy and back in nature and just enjoying their time in the in the backyard, close at home and relax and have the fun of growing something.
00:47:51
Marlies & Linda
I think it's not bigger than that. Yeah, but also sometimes people who get sick or get other problems and then working in the garden can also be make it positive again.
00:47:54
Jennifer Gulizia
You're creating such an... and
00:48:05
Marlies & Linda
And yeah, just be in the garden and enjoy the plants and the the birds and everything around you. it can make people positive again and help to get better or whatever.
00:48:17
Marlies & Linda
We have a new slogan since last year and we say, grow your own happiness.
00:48:22
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, I love it.
00:48:23
Marlies & Linda
So, you know, that's it because it's, it's in your backyard. You just, you just, it's not, it's not very expensive. It's close by. Everybody can do it. You know, it's in your, it's in your own hands to be happy in your backyard.
00:48:38
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes, you're giving them the tools to create an experience.
00:48:41
Marlies & Linda
Yeah. Yeah. And it's so much fun if people tell us, so I grew ah flowers and I gave them to my colleague or to my neighbor or whatever.
00:48:43
Jennifer Gulizia
That's.
00:48:50
Marlies & Linda
was proud. Yeah. And it's just about one or two flowers. You don't have to give a whole bouquet, but if you gave only a few flowers, people make it, make them so happy.
00:49:00
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, it's.
00:49:00
Marlies & Linda
And this is what we really like.
00:49:01
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely.
00:49:02
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:49:02
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely.
00:49:04
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:49:05
Jennifer Gulizia
Well, I'm curious because you mentioned you have your new slogan, Grow Your Own Happiness. Looking at the future, we've talked about ai changing
Spreading Joy Through Flowers
00:49:13
Jennifer Gulizia
things. You have this new slogan. What are you most excited about for the future of Fam Flower Farm?
00:49:24
Marlies & Linda
Well, it's more about letting the community grow and and and keep sharing the happiness and making other people enthusiastic. So we will be focusing more and more on writing blogs and and making videos to explain things and to make things easier and for example everybody who orders dahlias or whatever he gets fan magazine it's like 68 pages of inspiration but also tips and planting guides and stuff like that we just wanted them to succeed and i think that's that's where is the future ah
00:49:55
Jennifer Gulizia
okay
00:49:59
Jennifer Gulizia
Amazing. el
00:50:03
Jennifer Gulizia
What do you hope people feel when they receive an order from your farm?
00:50:10
Marlies & Linda
joy and happiness joy and happinessiness in the army deltala yeah the tubers are not so very and not so beautiful lotss so beautiful so we have to to to to add the the the happiness in yeah in in the box and in the magazine and and also spread it you know involve your neighbor or involve your kids your mom whatever
00:50:18
Jennifer Gulizia
don't know.
00:50:37
Jennifer Gulizia
Amazing. If someone is listening today and dreaming about starting something new, whether that's a garden or a flower business with their friend, what encouragement would you give them?
00:50:51
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, I think, yeah, it's just... Just start. Yeah, just start. And start small. Don't start big, you know? Just plant something and then learn and enjoy. And next year you can do again and try again and it make make some improvements and, you know, talk with other people about it and share the joy.
00:51:09
Marlies & Linda
and think don't don't so start too big. It makes too complicated. Yeah.
00:51:14
Jennifer Gulizia
That's great advice.
00:51:16
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:51:17
Jennifer Gulizia
Linda and Marlies, we've talked about a lot today, and this has been a really fun conversation with you. Is there anything I haven't asked you that you wanted to share with our listeners today?
00:51:37
Marlies & Linda
Not special. with I think think we have covered lots of things already. yeah It's a different world, to the US and the Netherlands, I think. yeah And we can learn from each other and we can learn from the people around you. and And everybody should start at least in your garden with a few pots. And even if you don't have a garden, buy a bucket and put some bulbs in it and you will see spring coming and summer flowers and share your flowers. And I think this is the most yeah important of our green life. hour
00:52:12
Marlies & Linda
yeah
00:52:14
Jennifer Gulizia
That's really beautiful advice. Thank you. Okay. I have been doing something that I started in 2026. I'm doing a series of quick fire questions to end our conversation. so since there's two of you today, um I'll ask the question and then we'll have both of you answer. Does that sound good?
00:52:32
Marlies & Linda
yeah At the same moment.
00:52:33
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, maybe not at the same moment.
00:52:34
Marlies & Linda
ah um
00:52:36
Jennifer Gulizia
We'll take turns. How about that? um The first question is, what is your favorite flower to grow and why?
00:52:45
Marlies & Linda
yeah For me, it's dahlias, of course. We have some very beautiful varieties from ah Joey. Joey is a man from Belgium.
00:52:56
Marlies & Linda
and He's a breeder of dahlias. We have bought from him a Joey Winnie. And it's that yeah and it's it's one of my favorites, the color and the petals of the flower.
00:53:02
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes, that's beautiful one.
00:53:09
Marlies & Linda
It's for sure my favorite.
00:53:14
Jennifer Gulizia
What about you, Linda?
00:53:16
Marlies & Linda
I should say, of course, tulips, but I'm going to say Narcissus.
00:53:20
Jennifer Gulizia
I love narcissism.
00:53:21
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, it's always like it's the first sign of spring. So now they're starting to pop out everywhere here in the area and they have such a nice smell and they're such nice, not only yellow, but also like creamy and pinkish and with apricose colors. And yeah, I just love them and they're easy, easy to maintain. to Just plant them and they come back every year. So that's all the things I love. I love.
00:53:48
Jennifer Gulizia
Do you have a favorite variety of them?
00:53:51
Marlies & Linda
um Yeah, we have one called Romy. And yeah, Romy, she's called after my niece.
00:53:56
Jennifer Gulizia
Romy?
00:54:00
Marlies & Linda
When Celia was like four years old, my her grandfather had only like a few bulbs and he named it after her.
00:54:00
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh.
00:54:06
Marlies & Linda
And now we have like a few beds of that
Challenges and Sustainability in Flower Farming
00:54:09
Marlies & Linda
variety. And it's so nice with orange and white petals. And yeah, it's my favorite. And because my niece is now 25, so we're 20 years later and we have a big lot.
00:54:20
Jennifer Gulizia
Amazing. Have you released that one out into the world?
00:54:23
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, it's on our webshop as well. and so And it's fun if you see it somewhere, it must come from our farm.
00:54:25
Jennifer Gulizia
Awesome.
00:54:28
Marlies & Linda
And I think with the dahlias, some varieties there are exclusively grown by us. So they they come somewhere from our our farm. They traveled a long way.
00:54:37
Jennifer Gulizia
which
00:54:38
Marlies & Linda
um
00:54:39
Jennifer Gulizia
It's so special to see that and how that ripple effect goes out into the world. Okay, my next question is, why do flowers matter to you personally?
00:54:50
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, it's a big part of our lives. ah Flowers always bring happiness and it's the best product of the world, I think. What else will you work in?
00:55:02
Jennifer Gulizia
You've been around it all your life. It's all you know.
00:55:04
Marlies & Linda
Yes. Yeah. That's all there is. Yeah.
00:55:08
Jennifer Gulizia
what about What is one thing you wish more people understood about flower farming?
00:55:14
Marlies & Linda
Well, it's not only fun, but there's also risk and there is like nature every year doing another job, you know, it's weather conditions. It's a lot of work that you don't see, but it's there. And well, it's ah it's quite challenging.
00:55:35
Jennifer Gulizia
Marlies, have anything you want to add to that?
00:55:38
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, also ah sustainability. We work a lot on it at our farm and it's not always as, yeah I don't know if can say it black and white. I don't know if it's it's all it's also in English, but it's not always good or not good.
00:55:55
Marlies & Linda
And ah as a flower as as farmers, we do a lot of work in sustainability. And yeah, I think this is also something which is people should more understand about because our men are always working with nature.
00:56:11
Marlies & Linda
and nature is their product, so they work with the soil and the plants. And yeah, I think this is an issue for the future, about to tell more people about how we work, and how we make improvements and you know getting better and better and better. And yeah, we cannot do it in know one day, but give us some time and we will manage it.
00:56:34
Marlies & Linda
It has always been that way.
00:56:37
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. That's such great advice. Okay. What are you most grateful for that flowers has given you beyond the blooms?
00:56:47
Marlies & Linda
Well, for us, it's the connection. Yeah, the connection with the people and the Instagram and the customers and, you know, it opened up our lives as well, because now we are here in a podcast, but we also have written a book and we are invited to some events and, you know, it met a lot of people.
00:57:05
Marlies & Linda
So it brings us into the bigger world. That's fun. Yeah.
00:57:10
Jennifer Gulizia
It's so fun. Marlies, you have anything you want to add to that or do you agree?
00:57:14
Marlies & Linda
Yes, yeah and also in the family and yeah in and the big world to share and to be able to share with the world. That is why we are very grateful for. And yeah, we can make people happy, I think. And also the the messages we sent by the socials.
00:57:34
Marlies & Linda
We know we've met people on the fields and not for everybody. The world is so full of colors and we hope we can share the color of Yeah, or colors of life, colors
Connecting Globally Through Flowers
00:57:45
Marlies & Linda
of nature. And we can brighten the day of some people. And maybe it's only a photo via the socials, but that's and that's okay as as well.
00:57:57
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. You never know if that photo might change someone's life.
00:58:00
Marlies & Linda
Yes, for sure. It can bring hope for people. And yeah, I think that's good.
00:58:06
Jennifer Gulizia
those are beautiful answers. Thank you both. Well, before we say goodbye, you mentioned you're grateful for the connection. Where can our listeners find you?
00:58:17
Marlies & Linda
ah You can go to our web shop, and but we are only selling to the European countries, but it's www.femflouwerfarm.eu, EU for Europe.
00:58:29
Marlies & Linda
And of course on Instagram, on Facebook, on FemFlouwerfarm, as the one word.
00:58:35
Jennifer Gulizia
Perfect. Well, we will have links in today's show notes so that people can come check you out because we do have listeners all over the world. So our listeners in the UK, oh, excuse me, the UK and Europe can buy from you.
00:58:48
Jennifer Gulizia
Is that correct, UK?
00:58:49
Marlies & Linda
No, not UK.
00:58:50
Jennifer Gulizia
Not the UK. I take that back.
00:58:51
Marlies & Linda
No, it's outside the EU now.
00:58:52
Jennifer Gulizia
i
00:58:54
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay. So anyone in the EU can buy from you guys.
00:58:58
Marlies & Linda
Yeah.
00:58:59
Jennifer Gulizia
Well, Linda and Marlies, this has been really fun getting to chat with you. Thank you for making time to join us on the podcast. I hope to maybe record one of these someday in person if I could ever make it out there to see them in bloom.
00:59:12
Marlies & Linda
Yeah, you're always welcome to visit our fields and we're happy to receive you. And thanks for inviting us, for having us.
00:59:17
Jennifer Gulizia
Thank you.
00:59:21
Jennifer Gulizia
Thank you. Well, if you ever want to come to the U.S. and visit our agritourism, you're always welcome here too.
00:59:25
Marlies & Linda
Oh, nice.
00:59:26
Jennifer Gulizia
The door is always open.
00:59:26
Marlies & Linda
that
00:59:27
Jennifer Gulizia
So thank you, ladies, for your time, and we'll talk to you again in the future.
00:59:33
Marlies & Linda
Thank you. Bye-bye.
00:59:34
Jennifer Gulizia
Bye-bye.