'Spring means color and wonder to me'

In addition to running her company Hilde in huis, floral artist Hilde Pit teaches four days a week at a VMBO-groen school where she introduces students to the floral industry during flower & design classes. ‘Students inspire me with their wonder at certain materials, which makes it all the more fun to inspire them again with new materials.’

‘I grew up with the Weerribben-Wieden National Park as my backyard. This is where my love for the outdoors and beautiful materials from nature originated. For me, spring means fine materials, color, and wonder. Seeing the buds come back on the trees and the first fresh sprigs in the garden: fantastic.’

‘In this season I use bright colors in combination with pastel, all mixed together. I love headstrong materials: fragile ranunculus but also tulips that happily decide which way they grow. Today's customer appreciates the flowers much more as they are now, little foliage, purity. That is something of recent years, but I am sure that customers will appreciate that even more in the coming period.

Spring symphony

Spring is arriving. And that can be noticed as early as February, although of course it can still be quite wintery well into March and even April. But for now, the outside temperature has been very mild for weeks this year, which is why the bulbs are sprouting from the ground in the garden, the branches are budding, and the birds, judging by their chirping, also clearly have spring in their heads.

‘Pure emotion captured in a period of time’

For florist Max van de Sluis, spring is one of the most beautiful moments of the year. 'A lot happens. Different plants and flowers emerge, everything gets color in the garden and nature, and above all, life becomes warmer and more pleasant.'

‘All this is pure emotion, and also captured in a period of time. I then try to incorporate that into my floral arrangements. That means sometimes working with a lot of color, so that an explosion is, as it were, depicted in an arrangement. And at other times I will opt for the subdued transformation from dead nature to the new and fresh green as it sprouts in the spring.’

'It is particularly intriguing and inspiring every year. The spring season has so much to offer. Just think in terms of colors from warm to cold - each color palette represents its own emotions and pure beauty.'

'Ranunculus really give the feeling of spring'

Floral designer Marcel van der Haar likes to work with parrot and French tulips in the spring. ‘I also think ranunculus really give the feeling of spring.’

'What I like to show in my arrangements is the changing of the seasons. I then incorporate dead winter materials such as dried grasses. These are then, as it were, slowly displaced in my arrangements by the colorful spring flowers that herald the next season.'

‘Besides the fact that I really enjoy working stylistically, I mainly prefer to present products as naturally as possible in my arrangements. Nature is therefore my greatest source of inspiration. I also see at trade fairs that many honest materials in natural colors are slowly being used again – although colorful counterparts can always be found.’

'As a car enthusiast, I can also be very inspired by a beautifully designed car, piece of furniture or building. It is important to look around you carefully, wherever you are – then the inspiration will come naturally.'

Winter tinted

In November, the transition from autumn to winter begins. Yet autumn does not give way so easily, it seems as if the leaves on trees and shrubs color later every year. But at the end of November, winter really makes its entrance.

‘All the cogs are turning again’

Florist Franka Roenhorst always practices her work with extreme passion. ‘From this passion I also participate in competitions, so I am currently in the run-up to the Dutch Floral Art Championship that will take place in January.’

‘I find the real challenge for myself in the preparation for a competition or, as now, in making winter-tinted arrangements for this magazine. In it I can completely let myself go, come up with new things, test materials, look for new techniques and create something special with them. I get new inspiration from this, all the gears start running again.’

‘In my search for colors that suit winter but are not standard, I worked with materials in red, salmon, orange, and pink in three arrangements. These colors clearly show the warmth of autumn and also that the transition to the winter and Christmas period is now beginning.’

'For example, in my arrangements, I have already used the poinsettia, Euphorbia 'Autumn Leaves', which has a beautiful salmon hue. And, as a nod to Christmas, I have added accents with Nobilis branches.'