Van Belle Flowers: Providing quality florist and garden centre services year-round. 1.800.263.8008.

Company History

Van Belle Flowers is a fourth generation family-owned floral company that started in The Netherlands. Great Opa Van Belle (Opa is Dutch for grandfather) would grow flowers in his flower bed at home and ride into town to sell them door to door.

This love of flowers continued when his son Opa Van Belle opened up a flower shop in Holland. After the onslaught of WWII, Opa and Oma Van Belle immigrated to Manitoulin Island in Ontario, Canada with their 4 boys and their niece. After purchasing 8 acres of land and moving to Bowmanville, they opened the Van Belle Gardens and Flower Shop in 1960. The current Van Belle Flowers Head Office is this original site.

Harry and Ada Van Belle built additional greenhouses and floral coolers, and upgraded existing structures. During this time, flowers were purchased from local growers, and growers that sold flowers at the Toronto auction.

Harry and Ada also expanded the flower and plant division by opening up a retail flower store in Oshawa in 1979 and in Whitby in 1983. These shop locations are still in operation today. Belle Floral Wholesale was started in 1986.

Van Belle Flowers - Today

Van Belle Flowers and Belle Floral Wholesale are still managed by core family members: Carl and Karen Van Belle, Ruth Van Belle, Martha Vandepol, and Jacqueline Van Belle. Each of them brings a unique blend of strengths to the company: Carl purchases all of the inventory; Ruth manages the daily operations of each of the retail locations, ensuring that all orders, deliveries, and store displays are handled properly; Martha Vandepol is responsible for advertising and promotions, public relations, and corporate accounts; and Jacqueline and Karen are in charge of accounting.

Van Belle purchases flowers from all over the world, including Columbia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and southern Florida. These flowers are picked and shipped to our company in Ontario in as little as 72 hours. Flowers and plants are also purchased from local growers and greenhouses in Niagara Peninsula, Grimsby, and St. Catherine’s. With this direct buying power, our company ensures that our flowers are of the freshest quality.

Because of our relationships with our growers, we carry over 30 different colours of roses; for example, Leonidas is copper and cream color, Titanic is a huge bubble gum pink rose, Esperance is two-toned pink and white, and Sahara is a taupe shade. Do you have a favourite?