On a recent trip to Europe I was lucky enough to visit a nursery in a small village in Switzerland. It was amazing, inspiring, and impossibly successful in the cold of December. I was in heaven. The greenhouses and the cold frames are all terraced into a hillside. Not a one was empty on this December day. Some of the greenhouses and all the cold frames were full of primulas ready for a local retail nursery. The rest of the greenhouses were occupied by birds, orchids, and other tropicals unable to survive the Swiss winter without the balmy comforts of the greenhouse atmosphere. Once the primulas are sold, nussler (corn salad) will be planted for sale to local restaurants. All of the houses are heated with hot water running through metal pipes, all powered by the furnace below the cement surface, accessed by a ladder in a hole in the floor.
The owner/operator is over 80 years old and a charming gentleman. He enjoyed telling me about his business and I listened attentively....it's too bad I don't speak the Swiss-German or French that he was speaking. I'm sure I could learn a massive amount from this man, the language barrier is a problem. I am hopeful that in the future, I might be able to work here, once I figure out how to get a work permit in the very exclusive Switzerland.
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