'Achieving the pure with few different materials'

Floral artist Philippe Bas tries to do everything in life with passion and abandon. At nineteen, he was a professional soccer player. But because flowers also had his attention, he started his own flower store in Hasselt (B) at age 20. 'The common thread through my floral work is to try to achieve the pure with few different materials - while adding a fairy-tale touch.'

'Similarly with wedding flower arrangements in which he elaborates on the theme of Bohemian wedding. 'Bohemian to me means a very natural style with mostly natural materials such as wood, bark, fresh and dried grasses and wool, felt, paper. The colors range from orange over brown to bordeaux and pastel over beige to taupe.'

'Bridal bouquets may be larger and fuller than other bridal arrangements for a Bohemian wedding. With a nice mix of larger flowers like Dahlia, Chrysanthemum, Sunflower, Peony, Protea combined with smaller flowers like spray rose, Ranunculus and Lisianthus.'

Floral Boho Bridal Party

Say bridal party, wedding or wedding and you envision a beautiful festive and dreamy image of a stylish country event venue a lush green setting and excellent decor with the most beautiful flowers and greenery. The bridal bouquet is elegant, carefully crafted in a
distinct shape with special materials and flowers. There are so many possibilities, it is not for nothing that making bridal floral arrangements is and remains a favorite for many floral designers.

'Enjoying the sunshine and colors in the garden'

In her flower store in Apeldoorn, florist Erika Oldenhof creates beautiful, colorful arrangements in various themes every day. 'Every season is unique with the beautiful materials,
that's what makes our profession so extra beautiful!'

'For inspiration I look carefully around me; what is going on in fashion, architecture, shop windows and the home decorating magazines and from these I often get ideas for materials, use of form and color. The many floral prints in fashion are also striking now.'

'Summer for me is being outside as much as possible and spending time in the garden with friends, BBQ, drinks, enjoying the sun and the colors in the garden. I like to use materials from the season, beautiful peonies, Passiflora, Ginkgo, Delphinium, Lathyrus et cetera. Trend is flowers from the picking garden. There is also
more demand in the store for (organic) field flowers.'

'Striving to balance sustainability, uniqueness creativity'

Student florist Gerrit van Aalst won a gold medal at Skills The Finals for the second year in a row. The new Dutch Student-Flower Binding Champion will represent the Netherlands
Netherlands at the Worldskills in France.

'With love I work with beautiful materials straight from the nursery - this allows me to always find that one special flower with a unique color, length or a special variety that distinguishes and embellishes my work.'

'I strive to balance sustainability with maintaining uniqueness and creativity. I am currently focusing on designing frames and bases that can be reused multiple times - but in a different way each time so that the floral works are always unique. In addition, I am working on creating large structures that take up little space for storage after disassembly. That also makes it easier with transporting or storing the frames.'

'In my spacious garden I grow lots of flowers and plants'

Master florist Birgit Davids-Schuurman is the owner of floral trade school for adults, Floral Academy, in Ede. 'I teach students who want to deepen or (further) qualify as florists. Summer means a slightly quieter time for me, spending a lot of time outside in the garden, enjoying family and friends.'

'In my own generous garden I grow many flowers and plants suitable for floral arrangements. In summer there are many varieties of flowers available. So I love to go through the garden with the knife and collect all kinds of materials for a summer bouquet or arrangement.'

'My floral work is characterized by versatility, I love variety: sometimes very minimalist and austere, other times natural, bloody kitsch or just classical. In terms of colors, I often choose ton-sur-ton, although I can certainly appreciate a colorful creation as well.'

'I love summer the most anyway'

Freelance floral stylist Fiona Konings has been working primarily in events since 2002. "In addition to performing floral styling, I also started photographing.

'I get my inspiration mainly from nature. But, and I think about this now: actually, I get inspiration from almost everything around me. I like to combine my love of nature, flowers and butterflies in my photographs. For example, the arrangement with the roses would be a beautiful setting for an inspirational photo shoot!

'Although I can really enjoy all seasons, I still love summer the most. The outdoors, the long evenings, the happy people, the warmth. In the summer you can literally recharge yourself. And of course, with a summer theme, the sunflower cannot be missing!'