Blooming People: Meet Keely, our Chief Plant Officer

5 Questions for Keely, our Chief Plant Officer

Before Keely started at Blooming Buildings (sometime in 2021), she worked at a New Zealand brunch café in Amsterdam. Rather than serving customers, she preferred taking care of the plants. She grew up in Australia as the grandchild of Dutch grandparents. In 2020, she came here to get to know the land of hagelslag and bitterballen better.

How did your love for nature begin?

We had a very large garden at home. In Australia, you have a lot of nature anyway, but you are not aware of it. Before I came to Amsterdam, I lived in London, where I had no outdoor space at all. It was precisely because of the lack of it that I noticed how much I missed plants. So when I got a room with a rooftop terrace in Amsterdam, yeah, I went all out.

How did you start at Blooming Buildings?

A friend of mine showed Tanja photos of my rooftop terrace, and then Tanja wanted to meet me. I started with the management of Baxter Building. But soon I could do more. And now I am CPO (Chief Plant Officer). This means I guide the managers and help with the creation of our outdoor projects. Additionally, I design the plans for our interior planting.

What do you like about your job?

I love working here! We make the world more beautiful with plants and ensure that biodiversity returns to cities. I want to learn much more about insects, how we can positively influence ecosystems, and how we can use nature for public health. Making a difference by getting your hands in the soil, what more could you want?

What are you most proud of?

The jungle reception of Lab Digital, I think. With the green wall. In Carré, there are also a few planters of mine. With different types of palms and ferns. I try to bring the outdoor feeling inside. It should feel like a natural selection. With different heights and different colors. So it really becomes a bit wild.

What are your ambitions?

I just hope to do many more projects that help improve life in cities. I want to develop a better eye for detail, learn more about insects, and how to positively influence the ecosystem. There is still a lot of work to be done.

And the bonus question: what is your favorite plant?

Her favorite plant is the ginkgo in Maaskantpark that she helped develop for the Groot Handelsgebouw. The ginkgo is a living fossil. It’s is a Japanese nut tree that is particularly resistant to heat, converts polluted air into clean air and it already existed when dinosaurs roamed here. The fact that a tree species that has survived so much now stands in Rotterdam gives hope.