FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #128 From Dutch Roots To A Million Tulips
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Spring doesn’t start on a calendar—it starts when a field explodes into color. We sit down with Bloomia CEO Werner Jansen to explore how a Dutch-rooted company built America’s largest cut tulip operation right here in King George County, supplying roughly 120 million stems a year to retailers like Whole Foods, Kroger, Wegmans, and Publix. Werner pulls back the curtain on hydroponic tulip growing—no soil, no pesticides, just carefully balanced water and nutrients—showing why this sustainable method yields cleaner stems, consistent quality, and longer vase life.
From there, we share a first look at Bloomia’s new Tulip Festival, planned for mid to late April, when one million tulips will open for a pick-your-own experience across two consecutive weekends. Picture walking vibrant rows, choosing your stems, and then grabbing a bite from local food trucks while enjoying live music and pours from regional breweries and wineries. It’s more than a farm visit; it’s a community celebration designed to draw guests from DC, Maryland, Richmond, and Fredericksburg into the broader local economy and the charm of historic downtown.
Werner’s journey adds a human heartbeat to the story. Trained in banking and finance and once working for a trading firm in London, he returned to Bloomia, moved to Virginia in 2017, and rose from general manager to owner and CEO as the operation scaled rapidly. His blend of analytical rigor and agricultural entrepreneurship offers practical insights on leadership, sustainability, and building a brand that’s both nationally scaled and locally grounded.
Want to join the celebration or stay updated on festival dates and ticket releases? Visit bloomia.com and bloomiaflowers.com, and follow Bloomia on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. If this conversation brought a little color to your day, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a quick review to help more neighbors find the show.
Werner Jansen
Bloomia
2259 Kings Highway King George, VA 22485 USA
Welcome And Guest Introduction
Speaker 2This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
What Bloomia Does
Speaker 1Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I have a special guest joining me today. We've got Werner Jansen here, and he is with Bloomia . Werner, welcome to the podcast.
SpeakerThank you so much. Thank you so much, and thank you for having me here.
Speaker 1I'm excited to dive in and learn more about you and more about your business. So let's start there. Can you share with us what is Bloomia?
SpeakerSo Bloomia is United States' largest uh cut flower tulip producer. We are in the backyard of Fredericksburg. We are here in King George County. Um we started here back in 2012, and as of today, we are providing a year-round tulip supply to the national retailers, uh, Whole Foods, Kroger, Wackman's Publix, uh, where we supply them with tulips, uh, roughly around 120 million stems.
Speaker 1120 million stems. That's impressive.
SpeakerYeah.
Announcing The Tulip Festival
Speaker 1Amazing. Well, congratulations on all your success. And we are lucky that you are here in the area, and especially lucky because I understand that there is going to be a tulip festival uh right here in King George for everyone from Fredericksburg to come and visit. So tell us all about this festival.
SpeakerAbsolutely, and thank you for bringing that up. Yeah, that is correct. It's gonna be our first one, and hopefully, it turns into a success so we can turn it into an annual uh event. But um, I was on the field earlier this morning to kind of like make sure that I can give you the latest update. So far, we are looking at the middle to late April, where we will have a field with one million tulips flowering, and we turn it into like a picking garden. So we refer to it as the tulip festival, where we really turn like the agricultural landscape into like a food truck, uh, music. Uh, we work with local breweries and wineries from the area, um, kind of like draw people for two weekends back to back to our farm and give them the opportunity to walk around the field of one million tulips.
Speaker 1It sounds magical.
Building A Regional Spring Destination
SpeakerThat is the vision and the thought that we have by it. So uh I hope that I can conclude that that is exactly the same after successfully executing it. Uh, but we still have a couple of weeks and uh there's still a lot of work that needs to be done. Plus, Mother Nature needs to be a little bit in our favor uh because it is all outdoor growing.
Speaker 1Well, it sounds amazing. A million tulips, and I love that you're bringing in local breweries and local food trucks and vendors. So it's it sounds like it's gonna be a really special event for our area because we haven't had anything like this. So thank you for bringing this to us.
SpeakerYeah, yeah. Well, the goal, the goal is actually kind of like for people to kind of like come from the DC area or from Maryland or from Fredericksburg, Richmond area to kind of like draw them into the historical downtown of Fredericksburg, into the King George region, uh, partner with uh local um local retailers, local shops, uh, and turn it into like a local for local combination. Um, so um this is the first year's edition. I think I already have like 20 other things that I would like to improve already, even before the the launch of the first edition. But uh this is hopefully something that we can continue to build on and improve and include more local um business owners uh to participate and contribute to this event. And who knows, maybe we refer to it later on as the kickoff of spring.
Werner’s Journey From Finance To Flowers
Speaker 1Yes, I love that. And I love that you're already planning ahead. It's gonna be something that we can look forward to every year. I love that. So, Werner, I want to learn more about you. Tell me about your background. How did you get into this?
SpeakerOh, interesting question. Um, so I'm originally from the Netherlands, the country of the tulips. Uh, that's where I was born and raised. I went to school there. Um, my background originally is not even close to anything in agriculture. Um, my master's degree is in banking and finance, and I used to work for a um stock trading company back in London in the UK. Um, after I figured out that that wasn't really my my niche, my culture, I went back to uh to Bloomia, where before um uh going to the UK, I did a quick internship. So that was back in 2014, where I started back working full-time for Bloomia, figuring out that the banking and the finance world might not really be something for me. Uh, but the agricultural entrepreneurial side uh potentially has more success. Uh so that brings me to 2014 when I started in the Netherlands doing some finance and IT to begin with. I came to the US full-time in 2017, uh, starting here in King George as the general manager, and then over the last uh few years uh things changed kind of like rapidly. Uh, the the size and the skill of the operation changed, uh, my position in the company changed and uh ended up becoming an owner and uh CEO of the company.
Speaker 1Wow. Congratulations! I really love that story. That's amazing.
SpeakerThank you.
Speaker 1What is something that you wish the listeners knew about Bloomia?
SpeakerWhat I would know, what I would like people to know about Bloomia is besides the fact that we are year-round, that we are nationwide, I would like people to know that the growth technique that we use, which is hydroponic, growing on water tulips, is a very sustainable way of growing tulips. We don't use soil, we don't use uh pesticides or chemicals. Uh it is water with some nutrition, uh, and that's a very sustainable, healthy way to actually generate uh beautiful tulips. Um, I think that uh people assume always that tulips are growing in full soil, like you do in your backyard, uh, but that's that's actually not necessary.
Speaker 1Amazing. So uh it's um environmentally friendly as well. I love it.
SpeakerCorrect, correct.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's amazing. Well, if the listeners want to learn more about Bloomia, where can they find you?
Where To Learn More And Tickets
SpeakerSo they absolutely can go to the website bloomia.com or they can follow us on one of the social media outlets, uh Facebook, Instagram, TikTok nowadays, even. Um they can also follow us on Bloemiaflowers.com, which is the website for the picking garden event, the Tulip Festival. Um, that's where they can sign up for the newsletter to kind of like be kept up to date on when the event will actually take place, and they can purchase the tickets to participate. Um, and that's the best way to reach us.
Speaker 1Amazing, amazing. Well, I know I am very much looking forward to the event, and I know my audience is well. And so, Werner, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today and sharing Bloomia with us. And we can't wait for the Tulip Festival.
SpeakerThank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to FXBJ NeighborsPodcast.com.