Inspiring tours for Floristry Schools
Visit Learn Create Enjoy! - Holidays for Floristry Schools
If you have a flower school and would like to arrange a tour for your students with specially arranged visits and experiences, please get in touch, we would love to hear from you!
Fabulous, flower-themed tours are one of our specialities. Our network of contacts with floral designers, growers and industry leaders across the world means that we are able to create travel programmes guaranteed to educate and inspire.
Hands-on workshops with leading floral designers in Europe
Taking students out of the classroom and into the studios of other floral designers in other parts of the world is a brilliant way to enhance their learning because creative people feed off each other and, however much someone knows, there’s always a new technique or fresh approach to be discovered. As globally-acclaimed designer Geert Pattyn says, “It is important to depart from your own strengths and to learn from others.” We can arrange private workshops with some of the world’s most exciting and innovative floral designers, many of which take place at their person studios. These bespoke workshops give students unique insights into other styles of working and are a wonderful addition to the core curriculum.
For example, Moniek Vanden Berghe invites students into her studio in Belgium to demonstrate how she uses her technique of ‘discreet flower arranging’ to create the spectacular natural floral displays that have brought her international fame, while fellow Belgian designer Geert Pattyn opens up his doors to share the secrets of his renowned pure and simple style inspired by the changing seasons. In the Netherlands, the wildly inventive master florist Pim van den Akker reveals how creates his whimsical outdoor installations and exuberant floral fashion garments and Astrid van den Berg welcomes students to the renowned Van den Berg Greenhouses where many of designs for Keukenhof Gardens are made.
And if you, as a floral tutor, would like to do a series of floral demonstrations of your own in a studio or unique site then we can arrange that too. How about creating a series of buttonholes made from foliage freshly cut from the amazing Hortus Botanicus in Leiden? Love to give a demonstration with tulips or dahlias? We can arrange for you to work with flowers picked from a world-class grower in the Netherlands - on a specially arranged site.
Guided visits to growers and gardens
Imagine seeing fragrant and beautiful Meijer Avalanche roses, the exquisitely exotic Vanda orchids grown exclusively at ANSU Vanda or the elegant Lisianthus produced by specialist nursery Montana Lisianthus, out in the gardens where they are raised. There is so much to learn from seeing how flower breeds are cultivated, whether that is in the beautiful Herefordshire countryside where the floral gems fuelling the boutique British flower industry are grown, or in the fields and greenhouses of the Netherlands.
We have exceptional contacts within the international floral industry and can arrange for you to meet with the people responsible for breeding these plants and enjoy specially arranged guided tours led by the growers themselves.
Floral art exhibitions
The annual Fleuramour show in Belgium is a hugely inspiring tour for anyone interested in flower arranging. Created by the people who bring you the beautifully produced Fleur Creatif magazine, it gathers the very best of the world’s floral talent to create breath-taking displays, from small, accessible table-top designs to vast rooms festooned with innovative and contemporary floral designs. Celebrated floral designers such as Tom de Houwer, Solomon Leong, Tomas de Bryne and his brilliant team of EMC, Holly Heider Chapple, Soren van Laer, Brigitte Heinrich and Angelica Lacarbonara create enchanting and inspiring displays in the grounds and rooms of the 16th-century castle, Alden Biesen, set in the small city of Bilzen in Belgium.
We are looking forward to the Floriade 2022, the world’s largest horticultural exhibition which, for this edition, will be held in Almere and promises to be the ‘greenest’ Floriade to date. Designed by leading architectural studio MVRDV, it presents a green extension to the city centre where the urban landscape embraces the natural world. The site is laid out as a grid of separate gardens, each one planted with different plants and offering a wide variety of exhibits from homes in orchards, a University designed as a stacked botanical garden and a Jasmine flower hotel. It promises to be a fascinating and uplifting vision of the future and we are able to arrange special visits for you and your students as part of this tour. Please get in touch if this might be of interest.
Everyone who has a love of flowers and floral design knows Keukenhof Gardens – not only are their beautifully planted gardens to enjoy, there are also flower pavilions showcasing new floral design talent. We recommend combining a trip to Keukenhof Gardens with a visit to the Frans Hals museum where, for only a few weeks each Spring, the galleries are decorated by local floral designers using antique and contemporary vases from the Museum’s collection.
Inside access to the heart of the flower industry
From auctions to accessory wholesalers, flowers are big business and understanding how the industry works from the inside is an important part of a floral designer's education. We can take you to FloraHolland, the world's biggest flower auction where 20 million flowers are moved through the halls each day; to FleuraMetz, one of the world's leading suppliers of plants, flowers and floral sundries, trading with florists across Europe and North America and to leading floral accessory wholesalers such as Dillewijn Zwapak and Alflora.
Our flexible approach means that we can work with your ideas to create a programme designed around your student's interests and aims. Designers we have created programmes for their students are Rachel Wardley of the Tallulah Rose Flower School, Misako Wakayama of the Bouquet Ecole in Japan, Tomas De Bruyne and Hitomi Gilliam of the EMC, Academy of Floristry and Jonathan Moseley.
If you have a flower school and would like to arrange a tour for your students with specially arranged visits and experiences, please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you!