6/1/2021

Every year, for two weekends in spring, garden aficionados arrive in rural Larkspur, Colorado to family-owned Dutch Heritage Gardens for their annual open house. Gardeners from across the region make this pilgrimage in search of beautiful flowers at wholesale prices. Several customers come from other states, like Kansas and Wyoming. One loyal devotee even flies all the way from Pennsylvania every year and drives home with her plant haul!

Customers arrive, many of them pulling trailers to fill with their bounty. They wait patiently to get inside; these gardeners are here to shop! The line for the public event stretches from the door and over ¼ mile to the main road!

This year I had the privilege of attending Dutch Heritage Gardens’ VIP event. The hosts, Aaron Van Wingerden and his wife Rosalia, go all out to super serve their customers. Guests are treated to a delicious catered meal and a tour of the impressive facilities.  What better way to spend a morning than wandering throughout the greenhouses full of gorgeous flowers, all while sipping on mimosas!

Aaron has carefully cultivated a high-performance culture in his operation, while also making it an enjoyable place to get to work every day. Rosalia heads product development, selecting all the varieties grown. With a true eye of an artist she designs all the combinations herself, custom selecting plants that will look great, grow well together, and make a lasting impression at retail.

The growing team truly make everything happen. Working diligently behind the scene they give each species exactly what it requires at the right time to have peak growth at just the right moment for sales. It is a complex orchestration that requires great collaboration and teamwork.

Being a certifiable horti-holic myself, I could not resist the opportunity to load up on some flowers of my own to beautify my home and yard!