Please take a moment to read the letter written by Arjan explaining the beginnings of the Green House and how it has become the international icon it is today.

Hello my name is Arjan. I am the founder and creator of the Green House. We started out in 1986 as one of the first growing Dutch marijuana, soon after we decided to also grow a couple of lesser known strains. Once everything was in place we started our first pedigree breeding program. Our new strains were a smash hit. We used new growing methods that had never been tried before anywhere else. New substrates, climate controls and new ways of serving foods to the plants were used. Strains with new flavours, different effects, longer and shorter flowering periods were developed. From the end of the 80s to the beginning of the 90s, we supplied the 20 most eligible cannabis retailers. We developed more expensive strains, due to longer grow and flower periods, however the coffee shops didn't want to pay our price or claimed they didn't have the capacity to sell it in their shops anymore. They claimed that there were no customers for our strains because we had entered the Skunk Age, which meant that the commercial profit for the retailers grew. This became a conflict between the market and the philosophy behind our work. The growing of stronger and a different varieties of marijuana was the base in the plan for keeping a lot of people from using hard drugs. The lack of good Cannabis is the start for some people to use hard drugs. We decided to sail a different course, and so to handle our product from beginning until end. This resulted in the foundation of Green House Tolstraat. With the creation of this shop we hoped to incite a revolution in the coffee shop retail branch of the Netherlands. We decided to create an artistic café / coffee shop in which our hobby as artists would be a great help. With different music and a full openness towards all customers we opened the 10th of August 1992. People were raving enthusiastically from the start and the store soon got the label business card of the Dutch drug policy. Slowly the Dutch people starting to get used to the different and mostly new varieties from the new coffee shop. Strains like Master Kush and Cytral were a big success. November 1993 was the 1st High Times Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam. We were invited to enter and we thought: why not? Celebrities like Sebastian Bach from Skid Row and Chip from Enuff 'Z' Enuff were part of the judging. There arrived several hundred Americans and representatives from many countries around the world. The award ceremony took place on the OZ.Voorburgwal, in a place where now the discotheque Trance Buddha is located. It was a grand slam, and from now on everyone knew what Green House was all about. Green House is a coffee shop with top growers / connoisseurs. Green House is the only shop who has the capacity to grow their own strains and control them from beginning until end this is what separates us from the rest of the coffee shop world.

While I write this piece on the eve of yet another Cannabis Cup we still remain unbeaten. The cup festival has grown into a huge event with more then 5000 people judging from all over the world. This just proves that the concept behind Green House and its visionaries is a unique one. A sequel couldn't be far behind. Since our Tolstraat establishment couldn't handle the enormous stream of people who wanted to visit us. On the 21st of April 1995, Greenhouse Waterlooplein opened her doors. After three months crawling on our knees through the building materials, a new art piece was created. Also this new and artistic looking shop immediately won the Cannabis Cup for best looking coffee shop.

Unbelievably during those formative years Brenda and I also found time to have two beautiful daughters. We hadn't given much thought to expanding since we were already busy with two shops and the girls. As well we wanted as a large part of their education to spend at least three months every year in a foreign country to inhale new healthy, spiritual energy. Only after receiving hundreds of letters a week asking if we could please sell the seeds for our strains did Brenda and I decide to expand. So we started the Green House Seed Company. A completely new and unique cultivation program. Our company became a slamming success. New varieties like White Shark, Snow White, White Rhino, Red Devil and Mary Crystal were introduced and took over the market. Our varieties were so popular they were being ripped off as fast as we could put them out. Within six months there were similar fake ones with the same name on the counter of most coffee shops. Fake copies normally forms the biggest threat to a company, but we hippie's just loved it. In the meanwhile, our colourful, unique interior decoration received more recognition. The more famous coffee shops in Holland started to imitate our concept. Which we loved also because this gave a new and inspiring touch to the cannabis "scene" in Holland. In 1997 I had a need for a new challenge. I had many artistic ideas that weren't expressed in the second Green House we had opened. I had to come up with a new concept because the two other coffee shop / cafés had been copied to much. My artistic heart was calling me and I had to do something. I started looking for a partner because everything by myself became too much of a burden to do all by myself. Neville, the man previously responsible for all the cultivation programs at Sensi Seeds, was in my eyes the man for the cause. I thought that the combination of Neville and I would make the ultimate dream team on the field of cannabis cultivation. We we're always on the same level concerning quality and exclusivity. A location was easily found and so on the 1st of June 1997, the third Green House was born.

Brenda, I and a group of close employees did artistic work in a record time of seven weeks. Neville and all others we're swept into a frenzy because the High Times Cannabis Cup was coming in November. Five days before the cup started we opened the doors of Green House centrum. Located in the heart of Amsterdam's "red light district" this was again a new revolution. An interior of glass, minerals and exclusive stones was so impressive that the BBC almost at once made a documentary about us. Again we dragged away the prizes for best looking coffee shop. Our new variety Super Silver Haze became the all time winner at the High Times Cannabis Cup it got the title "most potent plant on the planet".

I write this piece the night before the start of the Cannabis Cup 1998. The results you can read back in the High Times magazine. Don't forget one thing as you are buying seeds like White Widow or White Shark etc: this is only possible at Greenhouse Seed Company. Every other company selling seeds under the same name is simply a fake. This is unfortunately almost all the seed companies. Only Serious Seeds and Sensi Seeds have gained the respect from us because they are selling their own products. As far as the rest concerns, our advice is negative. On the 21st of November, the movie, Kenya Winchell (Hemp TV) and I made is going in premier. This is the first Cannabis rockumentery ever made. It's about coffee shops and cannabis in Holland and how the standard should be set all over the world. Check out The Film Your Government Doesn't Want You To See.

Somewhere there has to come an end to my story, and sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and think my ultimate dream has come true: "legalization". Only then, I always think back of the old medicine man I met during my travelers years, this man taught me the religion of cannabis and always said one thing: "We are never gonna win the battle with money. Money buys everything." Jesus (if he ever existed) bought the people with a chunk of bread. No one ever died from using just cannabis alone but the power of alcohol, tobacco and the pharmaceutics industry will prevent cannabis from ever becoming legal. The medicine man is gonna be right, if we as a unity don't help this little harmless, helpful plant against the ridiculous oppression from the madmen that think they rule the world. I would like to thank all the reporters and news crews that stopped by the greenhouse; would like to thank all the ex-employees, the employees, Scott and Neville for being there; without all these lovely persons we would never be as great as we are today. There's only one person, who I would like to thank especially, She the source of my strength, the energy that this powerful woman expresses is a source of energy that doesn't have a limit. The mother of my children and the spiritual inspiration to us all. Brenda I thank you... yours of the world Arjan [Greenhouse Seed Company].

All Greenhouse Seed Company seeds are sold in packs of 10 seeds, except where stated. A true bakers' dozen for your seed collection.