In the year 2001, I was finishing my studies to become an Agricultural Engineer and had the opportunity to work for a season in Maryland Aquatic Nurseries, USA. It was a wonderful experience. I was able to learn a lot and meet great people like Kelly Billing, Dick and Sharon Schuck and many others who helped me a lot. The last couple of months my girlfriend Sole joined me. She is also an Agricultural Engineer and we met in college.

When the season finished we traveled trough Europe where we visited many excellent gardens with beautiful ponds and our love for waterplants became passion. After that we returned to Argentina with the idea of creating a waterplant nursery.

The first year 2002 was difficult. The Argentine economy collapsed and it was very hard to find a job or make any plans but the dream of building a waterplants nursery was on. A few months after our arrival home we started looking for a place to build the nursery and a house. In the meantime Sole's sister generously lent us her small garden. We transformed it into a nursery prototype where we started growing the first waterplants.

With the help of both families in February 2003 we were able to buy 6000 square meters (a bit more than an acre) located 95 km (approximately 60 miles) from downtown Buenos Aires. Well beyond the city limits, we are in the countryside surrounded by soy bean, wheat, maize, cows, horses, etc. We are on the edge of one of the main access roads to Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina and a very large city with more than 10 million inhabitants.  

< October 2007 - View from the entrance 

With a lot of hard work we were able to build the house and nursery. We moved to the house after living for a couple of months alternating between a tent next to the construction and our parents' houses. The beginning of the nursery was very modest. There were two ponds and not much more.

The third year 2004 the nursery kept growing with more ponds and more importantly new customers. During the autumn we were able to participate at the most important gardening show in Argentina. This was a major breakthrough and sales took off.

The next year 2005 was the first year in which we were able to live from the nursery and we were sooooo happy. An article on the nursery appeared in the most important gardening magazine of Argentina.

2006 was a great year! Sales doubled and we were able to take our first holidays, a glorious time. The nursery kept growing. We hired temporary personnel.  

2007 started better than ever. We now have a strong customer base that keeps growing. We can proudly say we are the owners of the first professional waterplant nursery in Argentina. We have built lots of ponds for different clients, of different sizes and in different places. We even have a full time employee.

The nursery's name is Panambí, which means butterfly in Guaraní, the language of one of the native Argentinean people.