Taking the pulse in Türkiye’s horticultural heartland Yalova

Yalova, with a population of approximately 100,000, is affectionally dubbed the Garden of Türkiye. Considering its sprawling 485ha of land and 620 companies dedicated to commercial plant production, it is easy to understand why. The city is on the eastern coast of the Marmara Sea and enjoys a benign, ventilated climate, good soils and an ideal geographical position close to Istanbul’s multi-million consumer market.

Yalova is also the capital of Türkiye’s smallest namesake province. Approximately 58 per cent of the province’s territory is forest, and 27 per cent is agricultural land. The scarcity of land caused ornamental plant cultivation to concentrate on the outskirts of Yalova.

We all know that if horticulturists congregate in the same area, their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual actions. A horticultural cluster such as Yalova makes growers strive for excellence by improving product quality and offering innovative products. Also, the horticultural hub helped bolster and reinforce Yalova’s position at home and abroad as a reliable year-round producer of (mostly) nursery crops.

KEMAL ATATÜRK LEGACY

The name Yalova is frequently associated with Atatürk. Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first president (1923–38) of the Republic of Turkey, visited the spa town more than once. It was the place where he built his famous Moving Mansion next to an equally famous Platanus in 1929. When the plane tree began to outgrow and damage the mansion, he refused to cut its branches. Instead, he had tramrails placed under the mansion to move it a few metres further up ever since Atatürk’s holiday home has gone by the moniker Moving Mansion. But underneath the touristy pep talk, there’s a much more interesting story that Umut Sakarya, a landscape designer, outdoor living retailer and industry professional, is willing to share.

“Atatürk’s interest in Yalova boiled down to the presence of outstanding natural beauty, thermal springs, availability of land to create model farms for the region, and good connectivity. But Atatürk’s mission in Yalova was also a humanitarian one as he wanted to turn what was back then a mosquito-ridden swamp into a thriving agricultural community,” he explains.

Atatürk decided to purchase the Millet Farm (which currently houses the Atatürk Horticultural Center Research Institute) in east Yalova and the Baltacı Farm west of Yalova, which today houses the Atatürk Agricultural Enterprise Directorate and the Yalova Garden consortium. The purchase was made in a tendering process, as proven by the telegram of the Karamürsel Land Registry Directorate, dated 14 September 1929 and numbered 177. Atatürk’s deputy, Hasan Rıza Soyak (Secretary General of the Presidency), participated in the tender and bought the farms for 14,000 liras.

Atatürk visited Yalova in 1929 and took a keen interest in the newly acquired farms. “Combined, they covered an area of 1,189ha, of which the 692ha Millet Farm was the largest. Atatürk also wanted to reinvigorate the abandoned olive grove planted with 4,000 trees adjacent to the farm. So began the import of olive saplings from Italy, where young agricultural engineers from Yalova had trained themselves in olive cultivation. Expanding over time, the olive grove branched out to 22ha with 6,600 trees in 1938. Baltacı Farm, in turn, was important for sheep farming, housing 1,625 sheep. Atatürk also planted plane trees along the 12 km stretch of road connecting Termal and Yalova. This green belt emerged in the early spring of 1930 with 2,250 Platanus orientalis – the native plane tree from Anatolia – planted into the ground.”

Nature lover and visionary Atatürk also decided that after his death, the agricultural land he owned in Yalova would be donated to the State to avoid future real estate speculation in what later became a favourite second-home and tourist location thanks to its crystal clear sea, deep blue skies, and beautiful coastlines.

YALOVA GARDEN CORPORATION

Not far from the coast and west of Yalova’s city centre, Yalova Garden is a garden village on its own. Behind its carefully guarded gates—theft of plants is not uncommon—emerges a community of 48 companies organised in what is legally best described as a corporation. It rents the land from the State for a 30-year term that can be renewed for another 30 years. Meanwhile, ten years have passed since Yalova Garden’s inception in 2013.

Yalova Garden was set up in a cooperative spirit, which brings instant benefits. It entitles member companies to discounts when purchasing, for example, electricity, water, fertiliser, and potting soil. Also, the maintenance and surveillance of the 150-ha site are jointly organised.

In Yalova Garden’s business structure, the assets and cash flows of each of the 48 individual businesses are kept separate and represent a legal body on their own. Umut Sakarya has served as Yalova Garden’s president. He elaborates, “Yalova Garden members produce and sell for themselves with the corporation not engaging in trade directly.

Yalova Garden is there to promote the products and services of its partners locally and internationally, jointly undertake marketing activities, and manage and maintain the infrastructure. The only profit the corporation makes is the five per cent discount over water, electricity, security and land rental fees, and this flows back into the corporation to improve its infrastructure.”

BENEFITS

To be part of Yalova Garden benefits companies by giving them access to prime agricultural land, which they cannot rent individually. Growers also benefit from clear and effective communication with the local government and a customer-centric culture. The corporation acts like a marketplace, with members exchanging products if necessary to better serve their customers. “The corporation unburdens growers, allowing them to entirely focus on production without worrying about infrastructure and security issues. Of course, the decision-making of multiple partnerships and the bureaucracy that comes with it can sometimes be challenging,” says Sakarya.

The current corporate news is the opening of two new production sites within the perimeters of Yalova Garden. The required groundworks have been completed, and the sites are now operational. Combined, they cover 14 ha, significantly increasing the corporation’s annual output of young plants, half-finished plants, bedding plants, shrubs, trees, and perennials. The horticultural hub covers an area of 154ha. However, some of the corporation’s land is covered with forest and cannot be used for cultivation. The companies’ average production area is 2.5ha. The hub’s business environment is unique as most surrounding plant nurseries outside the complex are privately owned and managed.

KUZEY EGE PEYZAJ

The first stop was Kuzey Ege Peyzaj, which grows, imports and sells a diverse range of nursery crops on 17 ha of land. The company catalogue features Cupressus x leylandii, Photinia, Euonymus, Hydrangea and (fragrant) garden roses. In 1998, Fatma Kilic Yetim and her husband founded a landscape and garden design company in Istanbul. In 2000, the company expanded into containerised nursery stock, growing and trading in the Yalova area.

Plants are propagated via cuttings or imported. When deciding what to grow, the company prefers quality plants that require little maintenance and offer sculptural interest, such as Bougainvillea, rose pyramids, and ball-shaped conifers. In landscape and garden design, the company is somewhat self-sufficient as it incorporates its own-grown trees and plants into the planting schemes it designs. A portion of the plants is sold in the domestic market to wholesalers, hotels, and construction companies, while another part is exported to countries such as Iran, Iraq, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan.

NERGIS PEYZAJ

It is only a short walk from Kuzey Ege Peyzaj to their neighbour, Nergis Peyzaj. The late Ismail Sadim, who passed away in 2017, is the founder of Nergis Peyzaj. Sadim graduated from Istanbul University, Faculty of Forestry, Department of Landscape Architecture, and has an excellent track record in ornamental horticulture. Before establishing his company in 1999, he worked for the Karaca Arboretum in Samanlı, Yalova, and Gardenya.

During the first eleven years within his company, he continued to work as a landscaper. In 2010, he decided to focus entirely on nursery stock production. Ismail’s sons, Engin and Emre Sadim, have run the business since 2017. Nergis started out with modest beginnings, growing annuals and perennials, and evolved into a full-fledged grower, importer, trader, and exporter of nursery stock products.

Situated over two sites – 15 ha  logistics hub/showcase/cash and carry store in Yalova Garden plus a 15 ha production site location in Bursa – Nergis Peyzaj has built a reputation for an extensive range of more than 100 nursery crops, including trees, shrubs, perennials, bonsais and fruit trees. Photinia, Cupressocyparis x leylandii, Loropetalum, Platanus, Tilia, Magnolia Rosa, Olea, Chamaerops and Cedrus are among the best-selling products.

In scaling up their business post- Covid, Engin and Emre have a clear strategy: to become more self-sufficient in production instead of relying on imports from Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Germany. They aim to grow 60 per cent of the plants within five years while adopting the European quality standards. The brothers also want to increase exports, which currently account for 40 per cent of sales. Italy, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Libya, Jordan, Romania, Macedonia, Turkmenistan, and Bahrein are current export destinations.

Mehmet, Ekrem, and Yusuf Okul

VRL

Within a stone’s throw of Negris is VRL Sus Bitkileri, run by husband-and-wife team Ali and Selma Varol. To understand the company’s business model, it is important to realise that Türkiye has the world’s second-largest contracting sector after China. Many Turkish landscape firms and plant nurseries collaborate with the country’s contractors operating at home and abroad.

Turkish building companies oversee the buildings, while Turkish landscape companies design and execute the landscape portion of developments.

Established in 1996, the 70-ha VRL Sus Bitkileri is one such landscape and design company. It produces nursery crops for municipalities and garden and landscape designers. The company is a specialist roadside planter; more recently, it planted Juniperus and Nerium oleander as the plants of choice on the roadside of the new 420km stretch of motorway between Istanbul and Izmir.

YEŞILVADI

Metin Karakus founded Yeşilvadi in 1997. Today, he co-owns the company, which began as a landscape and garden design expert in Istanbul and later branched out as a wholesale plant nursery. The company’s 5,000m2 showcase in Istanbul Sarıyer-Tarabya gives a comprehensive overview of the trees, shrubs, and garden plants the company offers to large private customers, hotels, and fellow plant nurseries.

Occupying pride of place within the company’s portfolio are specimen trees and shrubs such as Cinnamomum camphora or camphor tree – an evergreen tree with leaves that produce a camphor scent when bruised -, Cistus x corbariensis or rock rose – a dense, evergreen shrub to 1m tall with wavy-edged, wrinkled leaves above which rise white flowers with yellow centres, and Pistacia lentiscus or mastic tree – a tender evergreen shrub or small 3 m tall tree, with pinnate, aromatic, leathery green leaves divided into up to 7 pairs of leaflets.

Within Yalova Garden, Yeşilvadi operates a 7-ha wholesale plant nursery, including a 4,000 polyroofed greenhouse. Around 60 per cent of plants are sold domestically, with the remainder, 40 per cent, being exported to countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Italy (Eleagnus, Eunoymus, Photinia and Gardenia) and the Netherlands (shrubs). In Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, Yeşilvadi designed the planting scheme for a new cultural centre in 2016. More recently, it completed the 19,000m2 gardens surrounding the Istinye Park shopping mall in ĺzmir.

GAYE

Our last stop was Gaye Sus Bitkileri, famed for providing an explosion of colours at the LIF show, where green dominates. The fourth-generation nursery run by the three Okul brothers has an excellent reputation for seasonal crops such as Cyclamen and Poinsettia in autumn and winter and Pelargonium, Osteospermum, Dahlia, potted carnation (Oscar), Petunia, Impatiens, and Primula in spring.

Their customer base includes supermarkets, DIY stores (Bauhaus) and occasional municipalities, all within Türkiye. Around 15 per cent of plants are sold abroad, with the Balkans and Azerbaijan being the prime export destinations.

Within the Yalova Garden complex, Gaye has six ha of glasshouse, where, when I visited, freshly harvested quality Poinsettias were being loaded on trucks. The company produces around 50,000 Poinsettias each year.