The Moll perennial nursery is located south of Stuttgart on the outskirts of Echterdingen. On 4.5 hectares, the Moll family and their team produce a wide range of hardy perennials and ground cover plants for end consumers, gardening and landscaping businesses and tree nurseries.
Spotlight on our members: Staudengärtnerei Moll
Echterdingen, Germany
The most important facts at a glance.
Our members are more than just facts and figures for us.
In 1991, Michael Moll and his wife Christine founded a perennial nursery with an area of 6,500 square meters on the grounds of a farm. Since then, the business has continuously expanded. Today, almost 30 years since the company was founded, the business covers a total area of 4.5 hectares. The open-field production area accounts for around two hectares, with an additional 3,500 square meters of greenhouse space. In 2016, their son Daniel joined the business.
1991
Year of foundation
15
Employees
Echterdingen
Germany
4.5 ha
Pot plant acreage
Q and A
Our members’ concerns are our concerns.
Daniel Moll
Staudengärtnerei Moll
1. What are your responsibilities and tasks and how long have you been doing this job?
I joined my parents’ business in 2016 after completing my advanced professional training as a master craftsman. Together with my parents Christine and Michael, I am part of the management team. My work mainly takes place outside on the farm. It includes personnel management, production and sales.
2. What emotion(s) do you associate with your work?
Perennials are, in my opinion, unbeatable in terms of variety, color, shape and the beauty of their flowers. I find growing them and the wide range of ways they can be used fascinating. It makes me happy to accompany their development from cuttings to fully grown plants ready for sale. Perennials are products with a long lifespan. Knowing that our plants give our customers lasting happiness is a source of great pleasure for me.
What motivates me is having the freedom to make my own decisions and the continuous development of our company.
3. In your opinion, what makes your company special?
As a true family business, direct contact with our employees and customers is very important to us. We are flexible, reliable and efficient.
We use modern technology to cultivate a wide range of quality perennials in harmony with nature. We produce locally, in peat-reduced substrate and in recycled pots. As a leading horticultural training company, we offer prospective perennial gardeners a multifaceted and qualified apprenticeship in a young and dynamic team.
4. Who are your customers and where can your products be found?
For the most part, we market our perennials locally, to gardening and landscaping companies, tree nurseries, specialist garden centers and directly to private customers in Baden-Württemberg.
We also supply large-scale projects such as the garden show in Heilbronn and new parks in Tübingen, Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg.
5. What challenges are you currently faced with in your daily work?
We are particularly concerned about the climate and the extreme weather events we have experienced over the last few years. Water shortages and heavy rainfall events are causing us to rethink. We have to adapt our range to the hot and dry summers so that our customers will still be able to enjoy our products for a long time even if there is little rainfall.
Fortunately, the wide range of perennials means that our products will continue to be attractive to people and insects in the future.
We are also concerned about the shortage of skilled workers, which we have so far been able to overcome thanks to our fantastic and committed trainees.
6. Which risks do you consider to be particularly critical for your business operations?
The effects of climate change and the unpredictability of the weather in particular pose a number of risks. Long periods of drought are hard on our open-field plants and constant watering is costly and time-consuming. An irrigation ban due to water shortages would be a disaster for us.
Heavy rain and long periods of rain in the autumn are also a hazard. Waterlogged soil or too much rainfall create conditions conducive to fungal and root diseases.
7. Have you ever had a damage event in your company and if so, what kind of damage was it?
For a long time, we were affected by hail damage almost every year. Sometimes we suffered major, sometimes minor damage. Fortunately, we have only had minor damage in recent years.
8. How have you experienced the support provided by Gartenbau-Versicherung so far?
We have always felt that Gartenbau-Versicherung provides us with the best possible support. Thanks to the “gardeners insure gardeners” principle, damages are realistically evaluated by experienced assessors. Claims processing is prompt and uncomplicated. We are very happy to have Gartenbau-Versicherung as a partner.
9. Is there anything you would like to see Gartenbau-Versicherung do in the future?
I hope that Gartenbau-Versicherung will remain innovative and continue to develop as it has in the past. Flexible support and responsiveness to members’ individual needs – such as for us perennial gardeners – are particularly important to me.
