BGColor: #ededed
Logo:
Font: Lato
Prime Color: #222222
Second Color: #ea0e0e
Third Color: #790fe2


Small Talk with Roy Rentes of Rentes Plants

Roy Rentes

Shauna Bernard talks to Roy Rentes, director of Rentes Plants, who shares insights on his lifelong career in horticulture, the challenges facing the industry, and his vision for the future of Irish horticulture

Print

PrintPrint
Horticulture

Read More:

16 January 2025

In association with Tully Nurseries

At Growtrade, we’re running an interview series titled ‘Small Talk’, where we talk to various influential members of Ireland’s horticulture trade. This month’s conversation is with Roy Rentes, director, Rentes Plants.

How did you get your start in horticulture?

My family business, I’ve been doing it all my life. I don’t think there was any real future that didn’t have us all in the business. Both sets of grandparents were Nursery owners in Holland, one continued by my uncle Frank to this day, the other, Rien, recently retired. My parents came here to Ireland in 1979 with the intention to save up some money to buy some land back home, and they never left!

My own start would have been pocket money work when I was young, then summers, weekends, and eventually fulltime once I’d finished school and college.

Before we were allowed into the business proper, our parents said to us, “First, I want you to go to college, and work abroad for a year.” After college, I went to Holland, Chris to the US and Bryan to New Zealand.

What was one of the proudest moments in your career to date?

I have a proud moment every year when I stop and look at our finished Spring Show, (11-12 February this year), just before we open the doors. It’s something special to be able to host something on that scale every year, and it’s a testament to everyone we have here. It makes me proud of my family, our staff and myself, a touch.

Others are events like getting a new potting machine, opening a new tunnel, etc. Growth moments like these are like the physical manifestations of all the work, time and endless small good decisions that accumulate into a positive outcome and that brings pride.

What was one of the greatest challenges you’ve faced in your career to date?

The 2008 crash, where we lost 60% of our sales in a year, and the big freeze of 2010 where we lost 50% of roses and 30%+ of everything else in one winter.

People don’t realise just how close to the edge most growers came in 2011/2012. They were big and expensive lessons to learn.

Give us an example of a recent success you had in your work.

Rentes Plants won “Best New Hardy Plant” in 2024 for Hydrangea Black Diamonds “After Midnight” at GLAS.

Another success would be this year being one of the first years where we had no quiet periods. We were busy throughout. We’ve grown our range and business to the point where we are busy every day of the year.

What are the greatest challenges facing the industry today?

“Baby with the bathwater” environmentalism and a rapidly rising cost base

  • We’ve all agreed that we need to do more for the environment, however the pace of change has been a bit unbelievable, seen in peat harvesting restrictions, chemical use restrictions, etc. Some would suggest that we use alternatives like coir/green waste and biological plant protection, however some of these are simply not commercially viable or just shift the problem somewhere else. Coir is an ecological catastrophe, green waste in pots and resembles a mud brick that plants don’t like growing in, and biological control is biblically expensive. Finding actual actionable and commercially viable solutions is going to take a touch more time than knee-jerking would allow. 

Teagasc are doing great work there with their “Beyond Peat” trials, among others.

We have our own trials coming along, and have recently started with bark-topping among other things to try to tackle these issues.

  • Costs and wages are rising fast, well ahead of inflation, with major physical inputs like pots, peat, canes, fertiliser, chemicals, etc being double what they were pre-covid.

Margins in nurseries were already very tight, but now more so.

What are the greatest opportunities facing the industry today?

A fast growing population with an equally fast-growing green thumb. It will be on us and our customers to capitalise on it.

What advice would you give to someone just starting their career in horticulture?

Education credentials matter, but not nearly as much as a can-do attitude and a willingness to learn. There will always be a place for smart, enthusiastic people.

Go to trade shows & seminars as much as possible. Going to large international shows like IPM Essen, Plantarium, or the Flower Trials is a humbling experience and enormously rewarding in what you learn in a short space of time.

Domestic shows like GLAS, our own Spring Show, and the IHNSA fairs are also very rewarding to visit. I can’t recommend it enough.

What are your hopes for the future of Irish horticulture?

For all the challenges, the industry is healthy. We are on a good footing, and well placed to do well into the future.

I hope that young people will see that success, and join us!

Rentes Plants are one of the largest nurseries in Ireland with a huge range in all categories. They have a long history and solid reputation of offering quality and reliability for everyone with a wholesale need for plants.

Small Talk is produced in association with Tully Nurseries, one of Ireland’s wholesale nurseries supplying landscape contractors, garden centres, DIYs and supermarkets in Ireland and the UK. For more visit tullynurseries.ie

Read More:



Comments are closed.

Back to Top ↑