Buds & Blooms 25 years’ of quality roses, production

Priding itself as the first farm to be established in Nakuru and its environs, Buds & Blooms has taken big strides in producing premium roses. To find more about the farm, Hortfresh paid a visit to the farm where Shivaji Wagh the General Manager expounded more….

Buds & Blooms 25 years’ of quality roses, production

Priding itself as the first farm to be established in Nakuru and its environs, Buds & Blooms has taken big strides in producing premium roses. To find more about the farm, Hortfresh paid a visit to the farm where Shivaji Wagh the General Manager expounded more.

Shivaji has immense experience in flower farming having begun his career in Tanzania as well as steering two of their sister farms in the Group; Bliss Flora and Dale Flora from scratch to their current glowing status.

How can you describe Buds & Blooms flower farming journey?

It has been adventurous 25 years. Buds & Blooms began in 1994; at a time the flower industry in Kenya was still at its infancy stage. At that time, we had wooden greenhouses on our 6ha farm; before the metallic ones came forth in the industry. We began farming on soil but its exhaustion made us shift to hydroponics. When we began cultivation hydroponic systems had not been introduced in floriculture farming.

We are the only farm which is situated in the Central Business District (CBD) of a town in Kenya. We began growing small head varieties which were highly productive at this altitude of 1910m. We later switched to intermediate varieties and now we are growing premium roses of all color range, since 2015.

We strive to supply quality flowers throughout the year to ensure we have good returns.

Low altitude areas mostly specialize in growing small heads and intermediate varieties, what informed your choice to grow premium varieties and how is the market response?

The demand for premium segment of flowers in the market shot up, though the intermediate market line for super roses is still there. Before, the market was for particular varieties but things have changed drastically. For instance, red variety was required in the market which gave red calypso a better edge. But introduction of Furiosa and Ever red which are of red color but of bigger head size changed the outlook of the market.

Also new markets such as Middle East, Japan, China among others rose up. This Markets began requiring flowers of 5+ cm plus head size. To actualize this, we paid a visit to South America, Ecuador and Colombia, who specializes mostly in growing premium roses. Out of the visit, we began cultivating premium roses with exclusivity which have less competition for better returns.

What measures has the farm put in place to ensure the premium varieties you grow fit this altitude?

We have set up a trial site for testing the flowers we cultivate. We do early selection of flowers at the very early stages where we test if the flowers have all the traits.

We test to find the productivity of varieties per square meter, the color of the varieties, their susceptibility to pest and diseases, transport (resistance to damage during transportation) among others. We do all this for a period of one year before embarking on planting a variety.

What are the technological innovations Buds & Blooms has invested in?

As you are aware in Nakuru we don’t have stable source of fresh water supply. We have drilled a borehole and invested in a reverse ensure our flowers feed on fresh water to maintain their quality in the market.

In addition, we have a wetland which we utilize to purify all contaminated water. Being in a town set up, releasing waste water to the surrounding can cause a major health hazard to our surrounding community.

We also have IPM’s to control on pests. This ensures we are not using a lot of chemicals in our farm.

More than two decades and still counting in flower business, what do you consider as the driving force for Buds & Blooms?

The growth of this farm has largely been pegged by the stable manpower from the top management to the lowest. We train our workers to understand flower farming and enumerate them well to ensure they stay in our farm for the longest time possible. Most of the workers have been here for more than 10 years. Having workers working for a short period of time and walking away affects not only the quality standards of the production but also the name of the farm as far as employment is concerned.

As a grower, point to us some of challenges you have faced?

Normal challenges like market; 2018 has largely not been a good year. First, freight charges went up, VAT on all agro-chemicals was increased, there was a shortage of fertilizers as KEBS went ahead to establish the quality of fertilizers in the market. This led to increase on prices of fertilizers by almost double the price. The suppliers only supplied us with little quantities just to carry on with the daily operations despite us placing more orders.

Going forward, where do you see this farm in future and what are your expansion plans?

Being in a town set up has really hindered our expansion due to lack of space. We have earmarked a place in Nyahururu at an altitude of 2200m where we will be relocating soon.

This will enable us to grow more superior premium varieties as well as cut on the cost of electricity which is used in RO, in purification of water