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1926

1926 – Establishment of ‘Darthuizer tree nursery’ Leersum

On August 19, 1926, Piet Hasselman started his long-desired tree nursery. After a merger, a company relocation to De Bilt, and ultimately a bankruptcy, Piet returned to Leersum in 1935 and started again. This time, he partnered with Louis Ilsink, which proved to be a very successful match. This laid the foundation for the company that would eventually grow into the Darthuizer Group.

With Hasselman’s return to Leersum in 1936, the company’s name was changed to ‘Darthuizer tree nursery’. In addition to his other activities, Piet Hasselman took on a part-time role as an advisor to the municipal government of Den Bosch regarding parks and street planting. In 1935, he entered into discussions with Anne Geert Groenewegen, and they decided to jointly lead the nursery in Leersum. Anne Groenewegen then became the director and co-owner of the company.

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Nursery, landscaping and seed business

Hasselman had many interests and around that time started a practice as a landscape architect. Through self-study and natural talent, he had developed such strong skills that he built a solid reputation in the field, leading to requests from various prominent families in the region. He established a landscape architecture office with drafting tables and other equipment in a wooden shed on the nursery grounds. Around 1940–1942, he also initiated a seed trade, further expanding the company into a multifunctional enterprise consisting of a tree nursery, a landscape architecture office, and a seed trade business. In 1945, under his initiative, the ‘Stichting Vakblad voor de Boomkwekerij’ (Foundation for the Nursery Trade Journal) was established, and he subsequently became the editor-in-chief of the professional journal De Boomkwekerij, tijdschrift voor boomkwekerij en vasteplantencultuur (The Nursery, a magazine for tree nurseries and perennial cultivation).

A ‘gentlemen’s agreement’

As Hasselman devoted more time to his landscape architecture office, which he had since relocated to Den Bosch, he could only attend to the Darthuizer nursery in Leersum on weekends. This proved insufficient, and as a result, his collaboration with Groenewegen did not always run smoothly. Moreover, the company was unable to thrive, and its development came to a standstill. This ultimately led both men to decide to end their partnership.

This was still handled according to a “gentlemen’s agreement.” They agreed that one of them would emigrate to Canada, and the decision was made by flipping a coin. Hasselman and Groenewegen used a 1925 gold ten-guilder coin for the toss. After the draw, it was determined that Piet Hasselman was the one destined to emigrate. True to their agreement, he honored the decision and, in 1949, moved to Canada with his wife and two sons.

Partnership Louis Karel Jacobus Ilsink

After P. Hasselman left the company in 1949 and emigrated to Canada, Groenewegen, who did not have a natural talent for horticulture, needed a new partner. He approached Louis Ilsink, a former schoolmate from Boskoop, to join the nursery in Leersum and become his business partner. This marked the beginning of the Ilsink dynasty—the family that has now led the renowned green industry company for three generations, guiding it through significant development and growth.

After completing his studies in 1935, Ilsink, the grandfather of the current director, joined Handelskwekerij Quatre Bras in Eefde, where he eventually became Technical Director. Over the course of 15 years, he gained extensive experience, but his ambition was to start his own trading nursery somewhere in the eastern part of the country. When Groenewegen learned of this, he invited Ilsink to work at the tree nursery in Leersum. During their first conversation, Groenewegen asked him how much money he was bringing in, to which Ilsink simply replied, “My hands.” On January 1, 1951, Ilsink officially joined Darthuizer Boomkwekerijen, which at the time covered 7 hectares of land.

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Cooperation Groenewegen and Ilsink

The collaboration with Groenewegen was very successful and remained strong until his retirement in 1975. Groenewegen was the technician, and within their division of tasks, he was the one who sought and found solutions for daily technical and organizational challenges at the nursery. He was also primarily responsible for the company’s commercial development, often traveling to visit municipal governments and park services. Through these visits, he was able to attract new customers and promote the products of the Darthuizer nursery.

Ilsink was, first and foremost, the knowledgeable professional—the true nurseryman. His interest and expertise lay in cultivation methods, and through study and experimentation with new techniques, he continuously expanded and deepened his skills. Over the years, he became a respected figure among dendrologists, gaining recognition as an authority in the field. He was also an active member of the editorial team of the journal Groen, where he published numerous articles on his area of expertise. Some of these articles sparked considerable debate within the industry, as they introduced innovative methods that were often met with skepticism by the traditionally conservative nursery world.

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