Hungry plants

The Weilbrenner family grows greenery with a voracious appetite. Venus flytraps and sundew plants are thriving in Freinsheim between vineyards and the Palatinate Forest. What began as a hobby in their parents’ winegrowing estate, has become Germany’s largest nursery for carnivorous plants.

A sea of green extends to the horizon. Hundreds of thousands of plants line up on metre-long tables. The air is warm and humid. More pots hang from the ceiling on cables. There is green everywhere. Small splashes of colour take shape only on closer inspection: fine dark red hairs with little drops glistening in the sun, purple pitchers dangling downwards and reddish leaves meant to catch live prey. They are deadly splashes of colour—at least for the insects attracted to them and the seductive scent.

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We are in the midst of carnivores—carnivorous plants. Nowhere else in Germany are there so many of them growing as here in the Weilbrenner family’s greenhouses in Freinsheim. Lukas and Philipp Weilbrenner, both company managers, cultivate over 600,000 plants every year, which are then sold in garden centres and DIY stores all over Europe.

It all started as a hobby their father Bernd pursued on a very small scale. “Our grandfather had a small collection of carnivores, and, as a child, our father was fascinated by them,” Philipp says. At that time, the family still ran a winegrowing estate and some fruit growing. Bernd is actually a trained vintner. But he had a passion for these ravenous plants. He read a lot, did research, experimented a little and at some point just began to grow plants himself. Word of his expertise spread. A pharmaceutical company contacted him in the 1980s and enquired if he could imagine growing Venus flytraps for the purpose of drug research. “Our father didn’t think twice and agreed.”

But the hope that raw materials for medicines could be obtained from the carnivorous plants was dashed, so the pharmaceutical company pulled out. “And there our father sat, with tons of Venus flytraps,” Lukas explains. But Bernd’s decision to turn his hobby into a profession was already made and he decided to produce for the ornamental plant market in future. The plan worked out, and the company grew every year.

Nature has really come up with something special there. It’s so fascinating

Philipp Weilbrenner

The small plastic-covered greenhouses located in the middle of Freinsheim were bursting at the seams in the early 1990s. The family moved to Talweide road on the outskirts of the town and set up a new nursery. Philipp still remembers how he used to walk around the new greenhouse as a child, cultivating his own plants, which he then sold at the weekly farmers market. “I mainly grew geraniums, because they went down well with the older clientele,” he says, laughing out loud. He already had some business acumen back then.

There will be a 3,000 square metre greenhouse at the location in Talweide road in the spring of 2023. The brothers are currently planning an extension, with another 2,000 square metres to be added. Bernd stepped down as managing director in 2019 and left the helm to his sons Lukas and Philipp, then 30 and 26 years old. Their father’s fascination infected them, as well. “Nature has really come up with something special there. It’s so fascinating,” says Philipp and picks up one of the countless pots. It contains a Venus flytrap, about two years old—almost the suitable age for sale. He points to the inside of the slightly reddish trap leaves. “There are little contact hairs here.” He strokes them gently, and the leaves snap shut. The sundew plant has a different strategy. It produces a sticky, nectar-scented liquid attracting insects, which get then stuck to the glistening drops. And then there are Nepenthes, pitcher plants—Lukas’ favourite carnivores. They lure insects into their elongated pitcher-shaped leaves, whose inner walls are so smooth that the animals inevitably slide down—into the digestive liquid stored at the bottom of the pitcher. Lukas points to small thorns on the outer wall, which “make a ladder for insects that can’t fly. This way even ants can get to the top and fall in,” he smirks. “Really cunning, isn’t it?

It is a matter that also excites children. Even the German children’s programme, Sendung mit der Maus, visited the Weilbrenner family in Freinsheim with a film crew. The nursery opened its doors for a special Mouse open-day programme. “It’s great to see how you can pass on your own fascination to children and how quickly this happens,” Philipp says. Perhaps in a few years’ time the same will happen with the next generation of their own family. The brothers have both recently become fathers.

Carnivores are economising plants. “They grow mainly on barren soils in the wilderness, in bogs or on rocks, for example,” as Lukas explains. They cover their need for nutrients with animal prey. However, the soil in which the plants grow in the nursery already contains enough nutrients. They are not dependent on animal food here, but they are still happy to have insects visit them. Houseflies, crane flies or small fruit flies wriggle in some of the plants. Apart from that, carnivores just need enough water—and lots of sun.

In winter, the greenhouse is kept warm with a woodchip heating system in the nursery. It is fed with waste wood from tree pruning work in the municipality and with Miscanthus, a type of reed that grows between the vines and the meadow orchard right next to the greenhouse. Lukas brought the idea with him from his horticulture studies. “Miscanthus grows extremely fast and sprouts again and again once sown.” It is a renewable raw material that grows right on our doorstep.

In winter, the greenhouse is kept warm with a woodchip heating system in the nursery. It is fed with waste wood from tree pruning work in the municipality and with Miscanthus, a type of reed that grows between the vines and the meadow orchard right next to the greenhouse. Lukas brought the idea with him from his horticulture studies. “Miscanthus grows extremely fast and sprouts again and again once sown.” It is a renewable raw material that grows right on our doorstep.

www.weilbrenner.de