Flower Circus

In this Flower Circus Talks we have Peter Kuijt, a flower sales expert. 

Peter works for the flower export company, Anton Spaargaren, and regularly visits lots of growers and auctions.  

Peter shares the beauty from the greenhouses on his Instagram account, so check it out  

👉🏻 https://bit.ly/3sp5tl6 Watch more talks with top specialists from flower industry 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fr5o-fyDMo&list=PL-VhDGibwtHSDMMM47fHATIeEurQTQRwr 

Join our other social media: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FlowerCircus.nl/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flowercircus.nl/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/flowercircus_nl 

Subscribe to our newsletter to get all important news and announcements all in one time 😉 

https://www.flowercircus.nl/

"Designing bouquets for the mass market is much more than putting nice flowers together"

What was supposed to be a 3 month job in America, became a working there already there now for many years.

Martine is now designing for the mass market and tells about her job, what she likes about it. 

Designing for mass markets requires more than making good looking bouquets. Because of the enormous amounts that are sold, it is about availability, logistics etc.

We also discuss how Covid changed her way of working, and how the pandemic influenced the way people experience flowers.

With the amount of flowers that are bought at the moment, not only for special occasions, but also as presents, thank you, and own use it is no wonder growers are getting sold out. The US wasn't a country which use to buy flowers for own use. With this changing the demand went up quickly.

This and much more in this great Flower Circus Talks 

For more flower industry news and inspiration, check out our website:

"The higher prices are mostly demand driven, not because of supply"

In this Flower Circus Talks we have Arie van den Berg, owner of Berg Roses.

Berg Roses grows roses in Holland, Kenia and China, So if somebody knows about roses worldwide it is Arie.

In Holland they grow 12 different varieties, and Arie says it's topsport to grow Roses profitable in Holland with a cost price that is very high. This is why innovation is key in Holland to compete with the competition worldwide.

Arie also explains why every country has it's own varieties, and that choosing new varieties is not only about figures, in the end it is always if you fall in love with it or not.

Sustainability is already for a long time high on the agenda at Berg Roses. With retail asking for it already for many years, Berg Roses is fully certified, and always looking for more possibilities to be more sustainable.

Although shipping flowers is more expensive now by plane, Arie tells there is enough space to send all the flowers. So the high prices are mainly demand driven. Something we see and hear worldwide.

This and much more in this Flower Circus Talks.

For more information about Berg Roses, visit their website: www.bergroses.com

(apologies for my neighbor who decided to start to do some DIY during the talks)

Dimitris is a floral designer, and owner of Flowers Papadakis in Athens Greece. He is also the Vice President at Athens Florists Association Greece. With Dimitris talk about his business, and how it is affected by not only Covid, but also before that the economical crisis in Greece.

He will explain on which principles he has build his flower business which help him to continue to do business. He will also give many! tips and tricks how he increases sales. A must listen for all you florists out there!

In this episode we have Danny van Uffelen from Zentoo.

Zentoo is the biggest growers association in Chrysanthemums in Holland. Recently Zentoo increased it's growth ambition. Zentoo wants to achieve a market share of 35% in the spray chrysanthemum, disbudded chrysanthemum and santini segments. 

With Danny we talk about their ambitions, the current market (8th of March and UK Mother's Day). 

The varieties they have, which ones are coming up, and how they select these new varieties.

We also talk about sustainability. Not only in the greenhouse Zentoo has made big steps, also in terms of packaging.

This and much more in this Flower Circus Talks

In This episode we have an absolute icon in the Flower industry: Niek Oudendijk.

With Niek we talks about he ended up in the flowers, after a short career in fashion. He started to work for the company his father started, who started his business by selling flowers on his bicycle. The company quickly grew, and Niek was involved in the trade part of the business.

In 2020 Oudendijk existed 75 years, special for this occasion they made a book, what is more than worth it to read, you can download it here: 

While travelling all over the world for the business Niek started up several farms with partners in different countries. That not all was a direct success he will tell as well, important is to learn from what didn't went well, adjust, and move forward.

This now results in farms which are still expanding with beautiful products, and reliable partners. This is why Niek sees the future will be bright, also with all the changes that are happening in the world and in the flower industry.  

This and much more in this episode of Flower Circus Talks

In this Flower Circus Talks we have Shabistan Khan as our guest.

Shabistan was during her study already attracted to flowers, spending half her money on buying flowers.

No wonder that this woman had to end up in the floral industry. After started her own flower shop, she worked for Soex Flora, and is now working for Black Tulip Group. Next to this she also writes her own blog (flowerandeverything.com) about her big passion flowers, and everything else that keeps her busy.

We of course discuss about how last Valentine's Day went, to quickly move to the subject of this Talks: Online Marketing. Shabistan have learned it all buy spending hours reading about the subject, and also by asking professionals in this area for help. Her tip: don't be afraid to ask, those people are most of the time more than happy to share their knowledge.

The magical word for social media seems to be targeting. Find your right audience, and start to communicate with them. It is better to start out with a small group, than with a big audience. Test how they react on your posts, and finetune it if necessary. From there you can try to make some bigger steps.

Make sure you are visibel as well, so no once in a week posts, as people will not see it.

This and much more great tips and information from Shabistan in this Flower Circus Talks.

A must listen if you want to grow your business online!

Porta Nova is a rose nursery that specializes in cultivating top quality Red & White Naomi roses. In their modern and environmental friendly greenhouse in the Netherlands, they do everything in our power to assure our roses grow to perfection.

Stefan will tell us about how this Valentine's Day went for them, and how it was different then previous years. He will also explain that they not only aim to have constantly the best roses, but also take care of the environment. To achieve this they came up with some really inventive solutions.

for promoting their flowers they work a lot with top designers from all over the world. For them the best way to show not only the beauty of their roses, but also the endless possibilities what you can make with them.

This and much more in this Flower Circus Talks

We are 4 weeks in with the Brexit now. How did it influence the floral trade in the UK.

We talk about this with Caroline Marshal-Foster, Director of the Good Florist Guide and editor at the Florist Trade Magazine. John Davidson, the finance director at Tom Brown Wholesale Florist and Kosta Foufas from FMA Ltd.

After waiting and preparing for it for about 4,5 years the Brexit was a fact on the first of January 2021. Although of course some things changed, we see that Covid has a way bigger effect on the floral industry than that Brexit has so far.

Flowers are not a problem for now to get them into the UK from Europe, plants is a bit of a different story, but certainly not impossible. Most exporters/importers are shipping at least twice a week. Sundries are delayed because of a lack of containers on the right places. But also this is more a Covid issue than it has anything to do with Brexit 

Sales for most companies has been good, and the expectations for Valentine's Day and Mother's Day are very high!

This and much, much more in this very interesting Flower Circus Talks.

Check out our website as well for more floral industry news, and floral inspiration:

www.flowercircus.nl

In this Flower Circus Talks we have the multiple award winning Bill Schaffer.

As a third generation florist, at young age Bill was sure he wouldn't end up as a florist, after sweeping the floor of the flower shop when he was young.

Now years later he is a renown floral designer, found his wife via his work, and now they run Schaffer Designs.

With Bill we talk about the special events and designs they did over the years.

Of course we will also talk about the Philadelphia Flower Show, were they already won so many awards.

It is about going all the way to make it look perfect. This not only requires a lot of skills, a great team. 

It requires also a lot of knowledge about all the flowers.

This and much more in this episode of Flower Circus Talks