Rosa Flora’s Energy Management is Growing Greener: The Full Story

As the largest greenhouse cut flower grower in Canada, we at Rosa Flora know how important it is to manage energy usage efficiently. Growing greener at Rosa Flora includes innovations in renewable energy, water conservation, and pest management that encourage environmental sustainability while producing the highest quality fresh cut flowers.

Being a Canadian grower makes us appreciate the power of the sun to provide light and heat for our greenhouses. During the warm, bright summer, our farm fresh flowers enjoy the sun’s natural energy. In the cool, dark winter months, we use high efficiency grow lights, a hot water boiler, and biomass heating system, and natural gas cogeneration to keep the flowers strong and healthy.

Natural gas cogeneration also provides some of the electricity needed to power the lights, computer climate control program, and other systems in the greenhouses. Cogeneration is 95% efficient, as heat (the by-product of combusting natural gas into electricity) is harnessed and used in greenhouse operations.

In addition to heat, light, and electricity, we rely on sustainable water management to grow the highest possible quality wholesale flowers. Rainwater is collected from the greenhouse roofs and held in freshwater retention ponds until needed. When that water is used for irrigation, it is mixed with fertilizer to ensure the plant receives exactly the nutrients it needs, right at its roots. We are able to capture the water that the plant does not use through a series of pipes, then filter out the excess fertilizer and return the clean water to our retention ponds. The fertilizer and water are both reused, resulting in the least possible waste.

Fertilization is only part of keeping plants healthy. We also focus on integrated pest management using biological controls and beneficial insects to fight harmful bugs, fungi, and disease. When beneficial insects keep pests in balance, the crop is healthy and happy, which means we pass on healthy and happy fresh cut flowers to our customers!

00:00 – Introduction
00:37 – Electricity
02:01 – Light
03:30 – Heat
05:48 – Water
08:13 – IPM
10:49 – Expansion
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Rosa Flora is a family-owned greenhouse cut flower grower in Dunnville, Ontario, Canada that specializes in fresh cut standard gerbera, mini gerbera, gerpoms, snapdragons, lisianthus, Asiatic lilies, oriental lilies, and anthurium flowers. Rosa Flora ships farm fresh wholesale flowers with zero breaks in the cold chain all over Canada and the United States. Visit https://www.rosaflora.com/Contact to become a customer and receive the best Canadian flowers today.