If you’ve been driving eastward from
Culpeper, on Route 3, towards Stevensburg, you might notice on the right side of
the road, down near the entrance to Luck Stone Quarry, there is something
growing there.
Depending on the day and season, you might see sprinklers raining successively across the rows. You might see various colors, or might not see anything — it’s there you just can’t see it, yet.
Culpeper County is home to the largest green roof plant grower in the US, second in the world to their parent company in their native Netherlands (Holland), according to Oscar Warmerdam, President of Sempergreen.
With 120 acres under cultivation and irrigation, the company grows vegetative mats or blankets for green roof projects spread across the U.S. Sempergreen, so named for its simplicity and as a reminder that their product is always green, within integrity of the green movement, as well as for the plants’ changing and evolving color — according to season and rainfall.
Wamerdam’s background, coming from Holland, is the Dutch flower bulb industry. He’s been out in the fields for many years. And, while he’s lived in many places in the US, he settled in the Stevensburg area in 2003 when he started Moerings USA Waterplant Nursery. Nearby Stevensburg there are other greenhouse businesses that have or had management from Holland.
In 2007, Wamerdam and his partner, Corne Van Gardren, founder and President of Sempergreen Europe (they say the largest and fastest growing Green Roof provider in the world), brought the green roof product line to the US.Industrialisierung des werkzeugbaus. As they expanded and grew,Visit TE online for all of your Application tooling Solutions including tools, they’ve moved up the road and are now located at the Luck Stone Quarry on Route 3.
Sempergreen grows and ships commercial product – they don’t install, nor do they maintain. As Warmerdam says “the roof is the icing on the cake, after all the other layers are done.” He comments that they work behind the roofer, the water proofer,The all New Bluetooth Reader BT1000 features a handsfreeaccess. landscaper, and most other contractors in a building’s construction.
Sempergreen projects have been in Chicago (United Airlines cargo facility), Minneapolis (Target Center), Nashville (Music City Center), Raleigh, Calgary, Toronto, San Diego, , as well as more locally to Portsmouth, Fredericksburg (Germanna Community College) and in to Washington D.C. (US Coastguard headquarters.)
They also provided material to the Mary Washington University facility in Dahlgren, as well as for IMF building in Washington, and the Department of Environment.
“Green roofs are not a luxury,” Warmerdam explains. “They solve a storm water solution.” Then he reminds us that a city has more pavement and rooftop surface,An airpurifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. therefore rain has no direct opportunity to get back into the earth. Instead rain runs off roofs, pavements, roads, parking lots. He says that even mature trees in a city, with their foliage and deep root systems, are not sufficient in quantity to improve the natural water cycle. Green roofs play a huge role in catching and absorbing rainfall, as well as delaying the flow to storm water catchment areas and drains which then flow to streams and rivers to bays, lakes and ultimately to the sea.You can create a beautiful chinamosaic birdhouse that will last for generations.
Still, green roof buildings and structures need gutters and pipes for excess rainfall. Richard W. Hoek, General Manager of Sempergreen says “green roofs are low maintenance, not no maintenance.” Moreover, “a green roof can double or triple the life of the roof membrane – which can be tar, rubber, or plastic.”
So, what’s growing in those fields down there beside the road? It’s called sedum.
While there are about 1,500 plants in the sedum class of plants, Sempergreen plants a mix of sedum — about 10-15 varieties. Sedum has a shallow root system which means they need less soil or growing material; they are drought tolerant and can withstand temperature changes; plus the plants store water. It takes about 9-12 months to grow a mat.
It’s taken some trial and error to get the land they use into an effective operating system, as the soils they are farming on are unique. They’ve installed a weather monitoring system and a 300’ well that provides the water for the extensive irrigation system, keeping sedum blankets growing with optimal conditions. Warmerdam says they “use specially grown sedum cuttings and seeds” and the cuttings come from the Pacific Northwest.
Sempergreen was at the CitiesAlive conference in Philadelphia this past November 2011.
Warmerdam is Chair of the Corporate Members Committee of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, which sponsored the conference. In 2010, he said they had two roofs that won an award; however, it is the installer/designer or the building owner that gets the credit for the awards in this event, not the grower.
As Warmerdam says, “a green roof cycles – it is a fluid and dynamic experience,” over the course of a year sedum changes color. Blooms of pink, purple, yellow, white, and red make for an interesting visual on a rooftop or on a wall, as well as in the fields, where sedum first gets its start, down the road in Stevensburg.
Depending on the day and season, you might see sprinklers raining successively across the rows. You might see various colors, or might not see anything — it’s there you just can’t see it, yet.
Culpeper County is home to the largest green roof plant grower in the US, second in the world to their parent company in their native Netherlands (Holland), according to Oscar Warmerdam, President of Sempergreen.
With 120 acres under cultivation and irrigation, the company grows vegetative mats or blankets for green roof projects spread across the U.S. Sempergreen, so named for its simplicity and as a reminder that their product is always green, within integrity of the green movement, as well as for the plants’ changing and evolving color — according to season and rainfall.
Wamerdam’s background, coming from Holland, is the Dutch flower bulb industry. He’s been out in the fields for many years. And, while he’s lived in many places in the US, he settled in the Stevensburg area in 2003 when he started Moerings USA Waterplant Nursery. Nearby Stevensburg there are other greenhouse businesses that have or had management from Holland.
In 2007, Wamerdam and his partner, Corne Van Gardren, founder and President of Sempergreen Europe (they say the largest and fastest growing Green Roof provider in the world), brought the green roof product line to the US.Industrialisierung des werkzeugbaus. As they expanded and grew,Visit TE online for all of your Application tooling Solutions including tools, they’ve moved up the road and are now located at the Luck Stone Quarry on Route 3.
Sempergreen grows and ships commercial product – they don’t install, nor do they maintain. As Warmerdam says “the roof is the icing on the cake, after all the other layers are done.” He comments that they work behind the roofer, the water proofer,The all New Bluetooth Reader BT1000 features a handsfreeaccess. landscaper, and most other contractors in a building’s construction.
Sempergreen projects have been in Chicago (United Airlines cargo facility), Minneapolis (Target Center), Nashville (Music City Center), Raleigh, Calgary, Toronto, San Diego, , as well as more locally to Portsmouth, Fredericksburg (Germanna Community College) and in to Washington D.C. (US Coastguard headquarters.)
They also provided material to the Mary Washington University facility in Dahlgren, as well as for IMF building in Washington, and the Department of Environment.
“Green roofs are not a luxury,” Warmerdam explains. “They solve a storm water solution.” Then he reminds us that a city has more pavement and rooftop surface,An airpurifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. therefore rain has no direct opportunity to get back into the earth. Instead rain runs off roofs, pavements, roads, parking lots. He says that even mature trees in a city, with their foliage and deep root systems, are not sufficient in quantity to improve the natural water cycle. Green roofs play a huge role in catching and absorbing rainfall, as well as delaying the flow to storm water catchment areas and drains which then flow to streams and rivers to bays, lakes and ultimately to the sea.You can create a beautiful chinamosaic birdhouse that will last for generations.
Still, green roof buildings and structures need gutters and pipes for excess rainfall. Richard W. Hoek, General Manager of Sempergreen says “green roofs are low maintenance, not no maintenance.” Moreover, “a green roof can double or triple the life of the roof membrane – which can be tar, rubber, or plastic.”
So, what’s growing in those fields down there beside the road? It’s called sedum.
While there are about 1,500 plants in the sedum class of plants, Sempergreen plants a mix of sedum — about 10-15 varieties. Sedum has a shallow root system which means they need less soil or growing material; they are drought tolerant and can withstand temperature changes; plus the plants store water. It takes about 9-12 months to grow a mat.
It’s taken some trial and error to get the land they use into an effective operating system, as the soils they are farming on are unique. They’ve installed a weather monitoring system and a 300’ well that provides the water for the extensive irrigation system, keeping sedum blankets growing with optimal conditions. Warmerdam says they “use specially grown sedum cuttings and seeds” and the cuttings come from the Pacific Northwest.
Sempergreen was at the CitiesAlive conference in Philadelphia this past November 2011.
Warmerdam is Chair of the Corporate Members Committee of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, which sponsored the conference. In 2010, he said they had two roofs that won an award; however, it is the installer/designer or the building owner that gets the credit for the awards in this event, not the grower.
As Warmerdam says, “a green roof cycles – it is a fluid and dynamic experience,” over the course of a year sedum changes color. Blooms of pink, purple, yellow, white, and red make for an interesting visual on a rooftop or on a wall, as well as in the fields, where sedum first gets its start, down the road in Stevensburg.
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