Johan van den Berk has been the familiar face behind our tree videos for years. His knowledge of trees did not come out of nowhere. Johan is part of the third generation of the family business Van den Berk Boomkwekerijen, which has now been around for more than 85 years. For this feature, Johan walked the nursery with his father Jan, past places with a story to tell. Jan is 85, born in the iconic farmhouse, and still at the nursery almost every week.

It all started with the poplars along the road. Jan’s father Peer was already planting them before the Second World War, for the clog makers and match factories in Eindhoven and Weert. Fast-growing, straight, easy to work.

“A tree ten to fourteen metres tall fetched seventy-five guilders,” Jan says. “The land beneath it was worth less than a quarter of a guilder per square metre.” A poplar was sometimes worth more than the entire farm, provided you were prepared to wait. That is the lesson a tree grower passes on: not the quick return, but investing in something that only pays off after years.