As Easter approaches, Chris Bergen, co-owner at Bergen’s Greenhouses in Detroit Lakes, MN, is working hard to keep Easter lily production on track since the company’s main distribution facility in the Twin Cities was devastated by fire last April. Bergen’s has been growing Easter lilies for over 50 years and the lily crop has always been a big part of its winter production.

“The fire at our growing range in Columbus, MN, has affected how we produced lilies this year,” Bergen told The Produce News. “We are producing all of the crop in our growing range in Detroit Lakes this season. The crop is excellent but we were forced to reduce the production numbers for 2016. We plan to produce close to 300,000 next year.”

Last April 15 at 1:30 in the morning, over 150 firefighters from 11 fire departments responded to the raging fire that destroyed 14 acres of Bergen’s greenhouses. “When I got the call I was devastated,” said Bergen in a news release. “I got there and it looked like a war zone. We suffered 100 percent loss at that location. But I’m so thankful nobody was hurt.”

The cleanup process and the construction of its new greenhouses began immediately. “We will be operating on a 50 percent footprint on April 1,” Bergen said in a news release. “And plan to continue building this summer until we are back to 100 percent, which we hope can be completed by April 1, 2017.”

Bergen’s Greenhouses has been in business since 1921 and it grows, sells and distributes annuals, perennials, garden mums and blooming holiday plants from three facilities in Minnesota. This year it will produce over a million perennials, 600,000 garden mums, 500,000 hanging baskets and hundreds of thousands of Easter lilies and poinsettias. Originally a vegetable market owned by Chris’ great-grandfather, Bergen’s is now the 30th largest greenhouse grower in the United States and is run by fourth-generation family members.

Meanwhile in Detroit Lakes, the Easter lily greenhouse is especially balmy right now because the heat helps the lilies grow. It’s a tight growing season this year with an early Easter that arrives on March 27. “We produce all of our crop thru controlled temperature forcing,” Bergen told The Produce News. “We pot the lily bulbs in October. Following a rooting period and 1,000 hours of vernalization at 42 degrees [Fahrenheit], the crop is moved into the greenhouse for forcing. We have been producing 240,000 to 250,000 finished Easter lilies annually over the last few years. Our distribution extends thru a multi-state area. We supply some of the world’s largest retailers with Easter lilies, azaleas, Asiatic lilies and hydrangeas. We also supply some of the region’s smallest retailers with the same products and we are happy to do both.”

The window for selling Easter lilies is extremely short —only about a week prior to the holiday. “We like to ship Easter lilies that are just beginning to crack color but with no open flowers,” said Bergen. “As you can imagine, timing is everything. Technically, lily growers have to be on top of their game. If you miss the window there is no market. If I could ask the pope for one favor, it would be to establish Easter as a fixed date each year — I’m in favor of the first Sunday in April!”