The Plant Company Acquires Extensive Dracaena Collection from Dragontree

As Ruud and Agnes Scheffers of Dragontree® prepare for retirement, The Plant Company® (TPC) will become the new home for their collection of approximately 150 Dracaena mutations.

The History of Dragontree and Its Dracaena

Ruud and Agnes began growing Dracaena in the Netherlands in 1985, after encountering challenges sourcing consistent young-plant material from Central America. Over more than four decades, their experimentation developed into an international Dracaena program, with Dragontree varieties produced and distributed around the world.

“Ruud and Agnes have spent more than 40 years looking at Dracaena and seeing possibilities,” says Frank Paul, Co-Founder and COO of The Plant Company. “There is an enormous amount of knowledge and history represented in this collection. We are honored to become its next caretaker and very grateful for the confidence they have placed in us.”

The collection consists of approximately 150 individual mutations accumulated through the Scheffers’ extensive work with Dracaena. These mutations can exhibit differences in foliage color, variegation, leaf form, growth habit, and other characteristics. Each selection will require evaluation to determine its stability, production characteristics, and commercial potential.

The Plant Company’s Plans for Dragontree’s Dracaena Collection

The Plant Company team will now begin growing, evaluating, and learning from this extraordinary collection.

“This collection represents decades of observation, curiosity, and work by Ruud and Agnes,” says Paul. “We are incredibly proud that they have entrusted it to The Plant Company. Our goal is not only to preserve what they have created, but to continue their work and hopefully bring some extraordinary new Dracaena varieties to the market in the years ahead.”

The final portion of the collection is being transferred to The Plant Company’s facilities in Virginia. Once established, TPC’s team will continue evaluating the material through propagation and production trials, with the goal of identifying selections with the potential to become future commercial varieties.

The Plant Company expects development from the collection to be a multi-year effort, with new introductions occurring as individual selections successfully move through evaluation, propagation, and production trials.