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Garrett

Feature Designer, Industry Events

Master Designer Martin Groen Brings Beauty to the 2014 World Floral Expo

Martin Groen is a man of many hats, he is a Dutch champion,  International demonstrator, international teacher and international judge. That would would easily tell us why him and his team of talented Dutch designers brought such amazing design to the 2014 World Floral Expo. We attended the thursday demonstration but Martin and his team did 3 days with three shows each day. Starting off on Wednesday with table designs & hand tied bouquets, then moving on to wedding bouquets and special events on Thursday, and finishing off Friday with easter/spring and business designs.

We were able to catch the noon show on thursday and it was amazing. Martin started the show creating a cascade bouquet of White standard Roses, Dianthus ‘Green Trick’, Fresh and Stripped Ivy, and then accented with threaded Green Hypericum, Wired Feathers, and Threaded Silver Leucadendron argenteum(silver tree) Foliage. Martin created a simple and quick hand-tied from a fresh Ivy collar, then Roses, and Dianthus and  used the stripped ivy, feathers, threaded hypericum, and threaded silver tree to create the beautiful cascade. Simple, quick, impacting. 

 
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The Cascade Stars To Take Shape With The Addition Of The Wired Feathers.

 

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A Beautiful Finished Design After The Application Of The Threaded Fresh Product And The Wired Feathers.

 

The second bouquet created by Jaap Wisse was a quick and simple crescent shape bouquet. Jaap’s bouquet consisted of a base of light blue hydrangeas, then an of white mini calla lilies and bear grass to create the small crescent shape. Then after the shape was established Jaap added white roses, white gypsophila, lavender static, and green hypericum. Once to this point he added wired foam pieces, feathers and a collar finish of wired foam strips and eucalyptus. Texture, speed and simplicity.

 
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Jaap Starting With A Base Of Hydrangea And Creating The Crescent Shape With His Mini Callas.

 

Martin took the stage for the third bouquet to show you can take a simple bouquet and make it something special with a just as simple interesting detail. The bouquet consisted of extra long white mini calla lilies with 2 taped bind points. Martin then took a red ti lead, spliced it and used the ti leaf to cover his bind points. Once the Ti Leafs where secured he wrapped the Ti Leaf with a thin wired roping to finish it off. Simple, unique and clean.

 
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Martin Preparing His Extra Long Mini Calla Lilies For His All Calla Lily Bouquet.

 

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Martin Covering His Mechanics With Red Ti-Leaves.

 

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The Finishing Touch Of Wired White Roping Being Added To Complete The Design.

 

The final bouquet of the demonstration was created by Jaap and it was to be a very clean, unique all around cascade bouquet. Jaap started building his bouquet into a pre-made wire collar with white hydrangea. Once his base was started with the white hydrangea he added in white roses, white gerber daisies and picked succulents to create a hand-tied bouquet. Once finished he added a touch of foam to the bouquet and then created his all around cascade with wired foam and fresh ivy. The wire collar kept the cascading elements from tangling or rest to close to the hand. Clean, quick, unique.

 
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Jaap Starting With A Wire Collar And Then A White And Green Hand-Tied.

 

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Fresh Ivy Was Then Added To The Collar To Start The All Around Cascade.

 

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The Final Design Is Very Clean And Very Unique With The Final Addition Of The Cascading Ivy and Wired Foam.

 

That concludes our adventure to the 2014 World Floral Expo. We can’t wait to see what HPP Exhibitions has for us next year at the 2015 World Floral Expo! Thank you Martin and his team for a beautiful demonstration and all of you for reading about our adventure to this amazing expo. Make sure to keep watching here for all the exciting interviews and stories we have in store for you.

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Fresh Arrangement Created By Martin And His Team

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Fresh Arrangement Created By Martin And His Team

 

Industry Events

Other Great 2014 World Floral Expo Finds

Here are some of the other great companies and florals from the 2014 World Floral Expo in Chicago, IL.

 

One of the most important aspects of floral design is proper care and handling and Chrysal was on hand this year showcasing a great variety of products from water conditioners to their Arrive Alive loose bouquet packaging. You can always check out their website for care and handling tips and tricks.

 
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Mimi Martinez from Chrysal Americas was on hand to show off all the great care and handling products Chrysal has on the market.

 

It was also great to stop and meet the lovely Jeanne Wessar, who operates the local farm for Blooming of Beloit out of Beloit, Wisconsin. We had a great conversation about her beautiful dark purple lilacs with white tips, as well as about farming and purchasing from local farms along with international farms. Sometimes we get so excited about what’s outside the USA that we forget about all the beautiful things available right in our backyard.

 
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Farmer Jeanne Wessar representing her farm along with the other product available through Blooming of Beloit.

 
One of the most amazing displays of color and product variety hands down would have to be Jet Fresh Flower Distributors with the vast colors of gerber daisies, roses and the very unique natural pink large calla lilies. Jet Fresh Floral Distributors also had the very new to the market naturally preserved roses, which very few suppliers have available as of yet. Along with the super color collection, they also had the always beautiful 120cm Freedom Standard Rose which is available in a few other colors.
 
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The Pyramid of all fresh gerber daisies and roses. Also on this pyramid are boxes of standard and spray preserved roses in a variety of colors.

 

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20cm Freedom Standard Rose available through Jet Fresh Flower Distributor, because “Size Matters”.

 

As an experience, there are few Expos such as this that offer personal time with farms. As they start to get the plans together for next year’s Expo, floral.today will be keeping our eyes peeled for all the details, and will have them here for you, so you can make sure to save the date for the 2015 World Floral Expo.

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Industry Events

Beauty at the 2014 World Floral Expo

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 CompanyAbove 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.

 
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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.

 

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Had a wonderful conversation Shigeru Ushikubo from the Naniwa Flower Auction Company located in Osaka, Japan and his interpreter about all their amazing product.

 

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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!