What are we doing?

Penning company specialises in the breeding, propagation, culture and trading in high quality freesia and hippeastrum plant material. Currently, the company’s facilities in the Netherlands comprise 12,000 m² of greenhouse space and 6,000 m² for cooling, drying and preparation. Facilities for vase-life testing of potential new cut-flowers are available and cultural trials are carried out in most parts of the greenhouse.

Freesia

Over the years, the company has developed a comprehensive, high quality product range with new varieties being introduced annually from its breeding program.  Each year, a large number of promising new selections are extensively tested and evaluated against criterion important to growers, buyers and consumers.  Possible new product uses are explored, and the results filed for future reference.  During the past 10 years, the company has introduced novel colours including orange, chestnut-brown and white/blue striped into its conventional assortment of whites, yellows, reds, pinks and blues; resulting in a unique colour range, rarely seen in ornamental crops.

The propagation and maintenance of both the new varieties and the existing assortment takes place at three locations. The base lots are grown under glass at a location in the Westland for further propagation. In Morocco, in a climatically favorable location, virus-free plant material is produced in aphid-free wire mesh greenhouses. At the second location (in and around Noordwijk), aphid-free production of high-quality starting material for floriculture at home and abroad also takes place under canvas. In this way, because the harvesting times match, it is possible to supply fresh, virus-free and well-prepared plant material almost all year round.

In addition to supplying plant material, advice for cultivation under different climatic conditions is also part of the standard package on almost all continents. Together with the customer, the possibilities and impossibilities for freesia cultivation are examined, based on the local climate data, and this is translated into a tailor-made cultivation schedule. If desired, the cultivation can be followed at all stages via modern means of communication and targeted advice can also be provided from a distance.

Hippeastrum

Beginning in the mid-nineties, the company has developed an exciting assortment of hippeastrum for pot and cut-flower cultivation, with the annual addition of improved and innovative varieties. Each year, new selections undergo extensive testing and evaluation against criterion important to growers, buyers and consumers.

Penning Breeding is primarily concerned with the propagation and production of juvenile material of new varieties.  As with freesias,  planting material is grown in Morocco where the higher light intensities guarantees first class growth.  This material is then supplied to bulb and cutflower hippeastrum growers, both at home and abroad.