Flowers

The cut-flower and ornamental plant branch at Northern R&DD is based on the fundamental concept of exploiting the relative advantage of the region in which we live and grow plants:
1. A climate that combines a “European” winter with an early spring (relative to Europe) and strong radiation.
2. Basaltic soil (without limestone) with low acidity that facilitates crops that require these specific conditions.
3. An altitudinal range of -200 m to +1100 m within a traveling distance of 45 minutes.

Taking all this into consideration, we focus our activity in the geographic regions located at 400, 700 and 950 m above sea level. We focus on products which require cold conditions for flowering and are developing different and diverse growing methods (soil, detached platforms, transport) so as to adapt them to marketing niches in Israel and abroad with a significant relative advantage which will be expressed mainly in the timing.

The main crop in recent years is the Wild Peony, to which most of the research attention has been dedicated: besides the various varieties of peony, we are also working on new flowers for our region such as the Hydrangea, Helleborus and others. In addition, there is a long-term study on developing a lily that will be suited to Israeli growing conditions with high marketing potential due to its adaptation to a specific market niche.