"Niewe bloemen" from Hortifair!

It was surprising to the three of us that the most noteworthy flowers we saw at Hortifair were from rather common genera, that we usually ignore. We only occasionally use Roses, Carnations, Gerberas, and Alstroemaria, but some of the most exciting advancements in breeding have been in these areas. We do believe there are no bad flowers, only poor designs, but with these new items on the market, we might just change our tune on some otherwise "common" blooms.

Hortifair Last Call

There is a ton to see at Hortifair, so we swung by for a few demos and to see if we missed anything one more time.
There seemed to be two main sections: Horti Grow & Trade and Horti Tech. Grow & Trade is where we found most of the new and exciting floral varieties and products that we have mentioned in previous posts. Tucked away in the floral section was a demo area where designers were brought in to showcase their unique talents and to boast the superior quality of "Oasis" forms and products (the sponsor of the showcase arena.) Once they finish the arrangements, they are placed on display for everyone to check out up close - most were inspiring, some not so much.














































Seeing the new varieties is breathtaking, especially when an everyday Alstroemeria or rose is 6'tall. Some areas were just from growers promoting their specialty items such as these roses (yes they are that tall) or the Gerbs Armas was checking out...The displays are just as great as the flowers. It was like a mini PHS Flower Show!
























But that is just a small section of the show - there were rows and rows of heavy machinery & software to help manage the systems that were fascinating. In between they had the quality test areas where we saw some pretty cool favorites as well. The booths looked like this:



















If Freesia always looked like Gardenias, I could really get behind it!
Here are a few things that caught my eye.



This one might be my favorite, it's a mum. The ball variety ~Judith

Hortifair Day One!

Here are a couple of pics of our first, oh so jet lagged, day at Hortifair. I'm really into some Anthurium leaves, and Judy is all about her flower-festooned walker!

There were some great demonstrations, and we found LOTS of great new books for the library that we just can't find at home. Come and check them out when we get home.

-Bailey

The Dutch do it best.

Do you know who does really does European floral design (besides us of course) is Europeans! It seems like everyone is throwing around the "E" word willy nilly these days. While even English Garden, with it's mounds of pretty, precious, peonies and posies, might technically fall under the umbrella of European, what we're talking about is the experimental, architectural, imaginative, cutting edge design few others are offering in the US.

Now, you'll never catch us ripping off designs out of a book or magazine, but we freely admit to gathering inspiration and techniques from our international counterparts. The highest concentration of these innovators happens to occur in Holland and Belgium, and many of them will happen to also be in Amsterdam this week as well for Hortifair.

I was just here in May for Queensday, and Armas and Judith have also experienced Amsterdam. We're excited to be taking our first overseas business trip together. What better city, and what a perfect time of year.

We will be exploring the newest Dutch flower varieties, visiting with other designers, and scouting out new products for use and sale in our Center City studio. Keep posted for reports all week.

But first, one more cup of canal-side coffee to help shake this jet lag!

-Bailey