Floradecora supplements Christmasworld – International Trade Fair for Seasonal and Festive Decorations – perfectly with genuine green. As the market place for fresh flowers and ornamental plants, Floradecora expands the spectrum of festive decorations at a time when it is more important than ever before to attract customers on the emotional plane – with a shopping experience that remains in fond memory. The highlight of the second edition of Floradecora were 40,000 long-stemmed red roses by Dutch rose grower and importer, de Ruiter, whose impressive presentation demonstrated just how extravagant decorations with roses can be. For the designer duo of 2Dezign, the ‘queen of flowers’ was the source of inspiration for ‘The Loft’ special show with its voluminous bouquets, and for decorating the stairs up to the Floradecora exhibition space in the light-flooded Galleria – both visual merchandising measures exerted a magic power of attraction. The enchanting fragrance of the flowers also played no small role in spontaneously persuading visitors that flowers and plants touch the senses and reach people’s hearts directly.
Adding extra vitality to decorative trends
There was a host of ideas on display at Floradecora, all of which contributed something to the trends at Christmasworld and helped bring added vitality to decorations in a wide variety of styles. ‘Vivid heritage’, rooted in a lively folk tradition, is supported by bold, plate-sized, brightly-coloured blooms including dahlias, hydrangeas and lilac blossom, as well as sprigs with red berries and amaryllis in a coat of red wax. ‘Balanced sobriety’, simple and perfect in the purism of its design, is set against an aesthetic background of grasses, sprigs of wood and pine cones, tightly bound bouquets of white roses or bunches of white tulips in painted presentation cases. The surprising contrasts at play in ‘eclectic gathering’, reflect delicate cherry blossom, lilies, larkspur and sweet pea with graceful blooms in fruit-coloured tones, hyacinths in a jar with pearlescent paper or yellow and lilac chrysanthemums in combination with turquoise-coloured butterflies. ‘Splendid history’ is a luxurious style, staged with modern trappings, that achieves powerful statements with large leaves of exotic plants such as monstera, agave and palm, set off by orchids and allium heads in, for instance, gold pots or with black garlands and golden glitter.
Exhibitors offer customer-oriented concepts
Every company that follows the latest trends and looks for special products can enrich its presentations with fresh flowers and plants. It could be a concept store, a gift boutique or furniture store that wants to ensure its assortment is up-to-date. It could also be a hotel or event management company wanting to make an even more appealing display. The fresh products offered by growers throughout the year are customer oriented and easy to handle.
At Floradecora, Holland’s Dümmen Orange presented new concepts by its partner companies, which simplify displaying, giving and selling flowers and green plants, e.g., in addition to sprays and bouquets, gift boxes with an arrangement of bulbs or wooden, self-service displays with hyacinth, crocus or tulip bulbs in a variety of colours. Rochus Hassefras, Marketing Manager of Dümmen Orange said, “There is nothing you cannot do with flowers. For example, you can reinforce every trend and satisfy all tastes.” And, he promises, “There is an answer to every question. Flowers and plants offer so much in terms of colour and character that they can be prepared to suit every trend.”
A view through green-tinted glasses: original and unusual convenience items
We should all be freshening up and enlivening everything we do with a little greenery. And in support of this notion, Royal Flora Holland handed out green-tinted glasses to visitors at the show. The world’s largest marketing organisation for flowers and plants, with more than 4,300 growers on its books, displayed flesh-eating plants in a glass in their ‘Swamp World’, water-plants in a bottle in ‘Water World’ and, in their ‘Liv in Wax’, a miniature ZZ plant with bare roots dipped in wax. These were all offered as original gift ideas, as items that, in the name of ‘convenience’ and ‘ease of care’, can last without being watered for two to three months. On show at the Dutch stand were also DIY succulents, that you can paint yourself, as well as ready-painted succulents in Christmas baubles from Amigo Plants. ‘Tea by me’ are potted tea plants combined with an iced-tea bottle from Special Plant Zundert and ‘One Rose’ is a single rose in a pot of its own by Rosa Danica. Lily specialists Moerman Lilium exhibited their non-fragrant, anti-allergenic lilies, for the development of which they recently won the acclaimed Dutch Tulip Award.
To make life easier for individual retailers and companies, the suppliers of fresh flowers came to Christmasworld with armfuls of new ideas and inspiration. Anthura introduced, by way of a new to-go creation, a varied selection of cut anthuriums, in colours carefully matched to current trends: in vintage jars, on a wooden tray, in a tinted glass jug which can then be re-used or in a glass vial and in a mix with succulents. ‘Full Flower’ is a composition of anthuriums with monstera and philodendron leaves in a jar, packed in a decorative box, and described by Sales Manager Dennis van Veldhoven as an “arrangement of greenery and a simple product to give as a gift”. As far as trends are concerned, it is going to be small plants that make the running. “Small is the next big thing,” says the expert. Particularly for houses with small windows, brightly coloured, mixed bunches, consisting of several small flowers such as mini-orchids or mini-anthuriums are a tempting thing to have on the shelves.
From green and white to bare roots and some surprises too
When it comes to promising colour trends, Jan de Boer, owner of Barendsen, suggests white in combination with green. And he sees a great future for designs with white roses, orchids, amaryllis, sweet peas from Japan, pom ranunculi from Italy, alliums and hyacinths – all in green / white combinations. Particularly promising, he thinks, are ideas involving a natural element such as tulips and hyacinths in bloom with the naked bulb visible, bound into bouquets and set in transparent glass containers. As plants of the moment, he points to multicoloured succulents that come as a set, together with flowers from the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa. Yellow-greenish leucadendron, for instance, come from the South African region. Their stalks corkscrew round and bear tiny flowers that look a little like pine cones. Protea nutans, too, is a similar eye-catching plant, with unusual blooms and leaves tight on the stem.
The element of surprise is, moreover, also to be found in hardy garden orchids that are appearing in ever more varied ranges. Cypripedium, that has the look of a flesh-eating plant with smaller or larger blooms in pinks, yellows and whites, can withstand outside temperatures down to minus 25 degrees centigrade. Evergreen calanthes can be found in all colours of the rainbow and even exist with a coconut fragrance. Pleiones and bletillas, that look like wild orchids, also belong in this group, which is developing into a new segment in the retail floristry trade and for decoration.
Next year, as in previous years, the consumer-goods fairs will take place around the last Saturday in January:
- Christmasworld / Floradecora: 25 - 29 January 2019
- Paperworld and Creativeworld: 26 - 29 January 2019
www.floradecora.messefrankfurt.com