Fall cannot be captured in a single color or form. The season is rich and exuberant, yet at the same time it shows how beauty changes and is ultimately fleeting. It is precisely this complexity that makes fall so interesting for florists and floral designers. Materials take on character, colors deepen, and even seed pods, branches, and dried forms become valuable elements of a design.

That same attention to meaning is central to our special feature on funeral floral arrangements. At a farewell, flowers can express what is sometimes difficult to put into words. That requires more than just an appropriate shape or color. Good funeral arrangements begin with listening, choosing carefully, and translating the personal story into a design that honors the deceased and the bereaved. Craftsmanship and empathy go hand in hand here.

Elsewhere in this issue, the focus is also on conscious choices. Tomas De Bruyne makes it clear that design begins with the question of why something should exist. It is not the flower or the technique that serves as the starting point, but rather the meaning and experience that a design evokes. Ahti Lyra seeks that expressive power in stories drawn from the nature, culture, and symbolism of his native Estonia. Their visions differ, but they converge in the conviction that floral art is more than just decoration.

We see this as well at The Dorchester in London, where Phil Hammond developed a distinctive floral identity that permeates every detail of the hotel. In his masterclass, Frédéric Dupré focuses specifically on texture, color, and light—qualities that determine how a design is truly experienced. We also visited the Landesgartenschau in Bad Nenndorf and Floral Windows to the World in Singapore, two international stages where the versatility of the profession was on full display.

With this issue, we, too, are taking an important step. “ DPK Floral Magazine ” was already available in multiple languages via the website, but from now on it will also be published as a fully English-language print edition. This allows us not only to showcase international floral art in the Netherlands and Belgium but also to bring DPK tangibly to a broader, international professional audience.

Thanks to our partnership with FM Group, the English-language edition can be ordered through FleuraMetz’s cash-and-carry locations. By including the magazine with a regular order, shipping costs can be kept to a minimum. In addition, the English-language edition is available directly from our online store.

In this way, DPK continues to grow across borders, while its core remains unchanged: providing a platform for craftsmanship, vision, and floral design that tells a story. Enjoy reading!

Tjeerd Posthumus
Publisher