About Vandermeer Greenhouses

Vandermeer Greenhouses began its journey in 1976 with 25,000 square feet. Peter Vandermeer sold his share of his greenhouse business in Holland and emigrated to Canada in 1974 with his wife and daughter. Two years later, he purchased 5 acres in Niagara on the Lake and started building.

He began growing commercial chrysanthemums under contract, but this was not working out to his satisfaction, so he changed over to spray chrysanthemums. Eventually he started selling directly to wholesalers, which now make up 95% of our customer base.

With business steadily growing and the greenhouse expanding, John Van Berkel joined the business in 1978, the same year that he married Peter's daughter, Angie.

As Peter started preparing for retirement, John and Angie became more involved in all aspects of the business and eventually took over when Peter retired in 1995.

Over the years, Vandermeer Greenhouses Ltd. slowly expanded to 200,000 square feet and in 2001/2002, the business underwent a major change. During several months, the business expanded to 280,000 square feet under plastic. This expansion also included updating the entire operation to make day-to-day production more efficient. In order to achieve this, equipment and technology were brought over from Holland. This complete expansion now marked Vandermeer Greenhouses Ltd. as the largest grower of cut mums in Ontario and one of the largest in Canada.

Today, we specialize in growing over 20 varieties of spray chrysanthemums, producing 5.5 million stems a year. What started out as a family-run business in 1976 has continued over three generations as Randy (one of John & Angie's five children) has joined his father as the grower and general manager.

A lot has changed since Peter first stuck the shovel in the ground in 1976, but there is one thing that will always remain: our commitment to growing the best product possible.