We are super excited to start our floral.today adventure off with our trip to the 2014 World Floral Expo in Chicago, IL on March 27th. It was great to be greeted right off the bat by Jasper van Dijk, Marketing Manager for HPP Exhibitions who puts on this great event. Right after the great welcome we walked into a wall of wonderful smells, colors and people from all over the world. As someone that has never been to a floral expo with so many farms and importers, the variety of people and companies was exciting.
The World Floral Expo brings together farms and companies from Ecuador, Colombia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Peru, Holland, USA, Canada, Costa Rica, Israel and Thailand to offer up some of the best international product available to the American floral market. The farms showcase everything from roses, and tulips to insurance and floral conditioning products and this year had some of the most unique yet.
Some of our favorites this year came from Amy’s Orchids, Holex Holland and Holex USA, the Naniwa Flower Auction Company, Above All Flowers, LLC and Blooming of Beloit. Our favorite florals that captured our attention this year go to the major variety of Dendrobium and Makara Orchids from the Amy’s Orchids booth. Also we can’t say enough about the amazing size, color and variety of Eustoma, Ranunculus and Scabiosa japonica that Naniwa Flower Auction had on display this year. Blooming of Beloit out of Beloit, Wisconsin showed off some beautiful green and white hydrangea, hot pink peonies, and some fantastic purple with white tip lilac.
It was great to catch up with Amy from Amy’s Orchids of Thailand and see all the great colors and lengths she is producing.
Had a wonderful conversation Shigeru Ushikubo from the Naniwa Flower Auction Company located in Osaka, Japan and his interpreter about all their amazing product.
Quick photo with Dutch Champion and master flower designer Martin Groen between demonstrations.
Thank you Martin Groen and Jaap Wisse, all the way from the Netherlands for the great bouquet demonstration! Martin and his skilled dutch team stayed busy on Wednesday demonstrating Table designs and hand tied bouquets, Thursday demonstrating Wedding Bouquets and Special Events Designs, and Friday finishing up with Easter, Spring and Business Designs. We learned some interesting techniques for better mechanics and unique detailing. This team of amazing designers brought beautiful designs created in a short amount of time with breath-taking impact.
We will be giving you some more tidbits throughout the week about our 2014 World Floral Expo trip, so stay tuned.
Thanks for stopping by today and make sure to check back often for interesting people, places and things from our amazing industry!
