Member in Focus: Staudengärtnerei Moll
Echterdingen, Deutschland
Staudengärtnerei Moll is located on the southern outskirts of Stuttgart, on the edge of the town of Echterdingen. On 4.5 hectares, the Moll family and their team produce a wide range of hardy perennials and ground covers for consumers, landscaping companies, and tree nurseries.
Staudengärtnerei Moll at a Glance
To us, our members are more than just numbers and facts.
In 1991, Michael Moll and his wife Christine founded a perennial nursery on the site of an agricultural operation, with an initial business area of 6,500 square meters. Since then, the business has been continuously expanded. Today, almost 30 years after its founding, the total business area covers 4.5 hectares. The outdoor production area comprises around two hectares, complemented by approximately 3,500 square meters of greenhouse space. In 2016, their son Daniel joined the business.
Echterdingen
Deutschland
Questions for getting to know each other.
What matters to our members matters to us, too.
Daniel Moll
Staudengärtnerei Moll
1. What are your functions and responsibilities, and how long have you been doing this job?
I joined the family business in 2016 after completing my master craftsman training. I serve on the management team alongside my parents, Christine and Michael. My responsibilities are primarily focused on operations—specifically staff management, production, and sales.
2. What emotion(s) do you associate with your work?
In my view, perennials are unsurpassed in their diversity, spectacular blooms, colors, and forms. For me, both their production and their use are varied and exciting. It brings me joy to nurture them from cutting to a plant ready for sale. Perennials are long-lasting products. Knowing that our plants bring lasting happiness to our customers gives me great satisfaction.
I am motivated by the freedom to make decisions and the continuous development of our business.
3. In your view, what makes your company special?
As a genuine family business, direct contact with our employees and customers is very important to us. We are flexible, reliable, and efficient.
Using modern technology, we cultivate a wide range of high-quality perennials in harmony with nature. We produce locally, using peat-reduced growing media and recycled pots. As a top-tier horticultural training company, we offer aspiring perennial growers comprehensive, high-quality training within a young, dynamic team.
4. Who are your customers and where can your products be found?
We market the majority of our perennials regionally in Baden-Württemberg, supplying landscape contractors, tree nurseries, and specialist garden centers, as well as selling directly to private customers at our premises.
We also supply major projects, such as the garden show in Heilbronn and new park developments in Tübingen, Stuttgart, and Ludwigsburg.
5. What challenges are you currently facing in your daily life?
We are particularly concerned about the climate and the extreme weather conditions of recent years. Water shortages and heavy rainfall events are prompting a rethink. We need to adapt our product range to hot, dry summers so that our customers can continue to enjoy our products in the long term, even with limited rainfall.
Fortunately, the wide variety of perennials available allows us to remain attractive to both people and insects in the future.
We are also facing the challenge of a skilled labor shortage, though so far, we have been able to counter this with excellent, dedicated apprentices.
6. Which risks do you consider particularly critical for your business operations?
The impacts of climate change and unpredictable weather, in particular, pose certain risks. Prolonged dry spells take a toll on our outdoor crops, and constant irrigation is both costly and time-consuming. Irrigation bans due to water shortages would be a worst-case scenario for us.
Heavy rainfall and wet spells in autumn also present dangers. Waterlogging and excessive precipitation create ideal conditions for fungal infections and root diseases.
7. Has your company ever experienced a loss event, and if so, what did it entail?
For a long time, we were affected by hail damage almost every year. Sometimes the damage was major, at other times minor. Fortunately, the damage has been insignificant in recent years.
8. How have you perceived the support provided by Gartenbau-Versicherung so far?
We have always felt well looked after by the horticultural insurance provider. Thanks to the “gardeners insuring gardeners” principle, any damage incurred is realistically assessed by experienced appraisers. Claims are processed promptly and without complication. We are very satisfied with the partnership.
9. What request do you have for Gartenbau-Versicherung?
I hope that Gartenbau-Versicherung remains innovative and continues to develop as it has done so far. It is particularly important to me that it continues to provide flexible support and respond to the individual needs of its members (for example, those of perennial growers).
