Flowers in the lead
A group of passionate top designers from all over the world come together at the Boerma Institute in Aalsmeer. Long work benches before them, racks on the walls filled with vases and tools for making all kinds of creations.
Back to storiesowever, the most interesting thing is against three walls of the room: buckets and buckets full of flowers in all shapes and sizes. The scent penetrates deeply, it is a feast for the senses. You can almost hear the wheels in the minds of enthusiastic designers turning: what kind of beauty are we going to create with all of this? The florists have the assignment to make at least three commercial bouquets in different price ranges. Every creation is recorded by a photographer and meticulously documented. The photos appear in the e-magazine of Floral Fundamentals and serve as inspiration for florists worldwide. One of the founders, Alison Bradley, explains passionately why these weekends are so important. About the importance of quality and inspiration, if we want to distinguish ourselves from the supermarket bouquet.
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About Floral Fundamentals
Simply put, Floral Fundamentals brings together florists, wholesalers and growers to share their passion for flowers. By doing this, people see what the other person contributes to the chain. It is about creating mutual understanding and mutual trust.
It started with people who realised that the established method of flower promotion was insufficient. It missed the real target group by putting too much emphasis on lifestyle and forgetting that it is the florist who ultimately sells the product to the consumer. The case gained momentum when exporters Marius Dekker and Piet van Kampen, together with grower Steef van Adrichem, met Alison Bradley, who is both a flower designer and a 'flower journalist'.
”We wanted to do with a small budget what others with more promotion money could not get done. To put the florist in the spotlight.
"We wanted to do with a small budget what others with more promotion money could not get done. To put the florist in the spotlight.” That is how Floral Fundamentals started. In Floral Fundamentals, growers learn to view the industry from the perspective of a florist and florists learn about the industry from the perspective of a grower.
Weekends for top florists
"We wanted to organise Floral Fundamentals weekends in which top florists from around the world would come together, visit the farms of top growers and have two full days to create the most beautiful flower arrangements. This is relatively cheap and easily organised. When we announced our plans, we found a group of growers and suppliers enthusiastic to finance these weekends. We found a location at the Aalsmeer Boerma Institute in the Netherlands, where these top florists like to come and network."
"Floral Fundamentals weekends have a simple goal. After following a growers' tour, they work with flowers. Each florist makes at least three hand-tied bouquets with a total of around 150 arrangements being completed during the weekend. The challenge is to get them in different price ranges. All these arrangements and bouquets are professionally photographed and described. The results are published in the Floral Fundamentals e-magazine, which anyone can view on www.floralfundamentals.com."
Inspiration for the florist
"Three times a year we have a group of top florists create commercial floral art to inspire their colleagues worldwide. Due to the international character of the weekends we see flower styles from all over the world. The pieces must be commercial so that florists can get inspiration from them."
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