"Roaming the garden together in search of materials."

Freelance florist and teacher Linda Eising prefers to keep her farewell floral arrangements close to the personal wishes of the customer. ‘It is my challenge and strength to translate those wishes into floral work. Gathering information from the bereaved by visiting, listening, asking the right questions and looking around gives me the right information to get started.’

‘Purchasing materials or, even better, using plants from home or the garden. Strolling together in your own garden for the most beautiful materials. It is often precisely those materials that have been lovingly cared for and admired by the deceased.’

‘When searching for materials together with the bereaved, the most beautiful stories and precious memories emerge. This often immediately serves as a piece of bereavement processing. When you then make an arrangement from all those materials, you see tears of emotion and recognition in the eyes of the relatives when delivering it. That gives me a lot of satisfaction. 

‘I can put my passion into bridal work’

For floral designer Max van de Sluis, one of the most important characteristics of bridal floral work is that it is primarily personal. 'In my experience, the bouquet must perfectly match the bride and the person she is, or at least the personality she wants to express. That always makes designing for bridal floral work a fun challenge. Our profession is very versatile, and within all those dimensions, bridal work is not only an important part but also a facet that I really enjoy working on. I can very sincerely put my passion and enthusiasm into this.'

‘Working with seasonal materials always gives me something extra. Expanding a flower or using only one type of (flower) material is also fun to do and gives a great result – as I have been able to show a few times in this session.’

'Achieving the pure with few different materials'

Floral artist Philippe Bas tries to do everything in life with passion and dedication. At nineteen he was a professional football player. But because flowers also had his attention, he started his own flower shop in Hasselt (B) at the age of twenty. 'The common thread through my floral work is to try to achieve the pure with few different materials – with a fairytale touch.'

'Likewise with bridal floral work, 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 to brown to burgundy and from pastel to beige to taupe.'

‘Bridal bouquets for a Bohemian wedding party may be larger and fuller than other bridal work, with a beautiful mix of larger flowers such as Dahlia, chrysanthemum, sunflower, peony, Protea in combination with smaller flowers such as spray rose, ranunculus and lisianthus.’

Floral Boho Bridal Party

Mention a bridal party, wedding, or marriage, and a beautiful, festive, and dreamy image appears: a stylish, rural event location, a lush green environment, and excellent decoration with the most beautiful flowers and greenery. The bridal bouquet is elegant, carefully made in a
distinctive shape with special materials and flowers. There are so many possibilities; it is not without reason that creating bridal floral work is and remains a favorite for many floral designers.

'Enjoying the sunshine and colors in the garden'

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

'For inspiration, I look around me carefully; what is happening in fashion, architecture, shop windows and home magazines, and from that I often get ideas for materials, shapes and colors. 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. The trend is flowers from the picking garden. There is also
in the store more demand 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 Champion in Floral Design will represent the Netherlands at the Worldskills in France.

‘I lovingly work with beautiful materials directly from the nursery – this enables 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 for a balance between sustainability and maintaining uniqueness and creativity. I am currently focusing on designing frames and surfaces that can be reused multiple times – but each time in a different way so that the flower arrangements always have a unique character. I am also working on creating large constructions that take up little space for storage after disassembly. That also makes it easier to transport or store the frames.’