Botanica Cup: 4x gold for Gerrit

The 10 participants in the third edition of the Botanica Cup were divided into two categories: juniors and seniors. Besides the Netherlands and home country Hungary, there were also participants from Croatia, Estonia, Romania, Spain, Slovakia and even Mexico. During the competition, participants were given three challenging tasks. A hand-tied bouquet with the theme Summer Storm & Sunshine, a free composition with mandatory use of a black iron frame and lighting, and a body decoration (to be prepared at home), where the flowers remained a surprise.

'For me it was a huge challenge because this competition looked slightly different from the WorldSkills competitions. For example, a new way of distributing flowers among the participants was tested,' Gerrit says. 'For each assignment, we had three 10-minute blocks and a budget to purchase flowers, 90 percent of which had to be mandatory. Also, for the third assignment the frame had to fly with us from the Netherlands, this meant that it had to be both sturdy and fit in a suitcase.'