Category: Holland


Going Dutch, Part 2

Filed Under: Holland, Peter Grontas, Sara Cancellaro by Jessica — 1 Comment
June 11, 2010

Flowers of the World’s trip continues in Holland, where the company’s co-owner Peter Grontas, and general manager Sara Cancellaro, are exploring new and unique flowers to bring back to our stores. After uncovering the gorgeous Red Naomi rose earlier this week, and checking out the Fleura and Metz warehouses, Peter and Sara visited Hilverda de Boer, where many of FOTW’s gorgeous flowers originate. In fact, these buckets of hydrangea are actually headed for our 55th Street store!

Hilverda de Boer’s Marco and Sander (pictured with Sara below) played the part of gracious hosts, showing off a variety of spectacular flowers, including the large Coco Grande hypericum Peter is examining in this photo.


Calla lilies and peonies are some of our favorite blooms to design with, and these Mango and Auckland calla varieties, as well as this lush salmon peony, are stunning.
And check out the exotic pink-and-white curcuma (aptly nicknamed “Candy Stripe”), pictured below. Equally as dramatic are the long-stemmed allium siculumm with its bell-shaped flowers.
Unfortunately, the unique green plants below can’t travel into the U.S., so these photos will have to do!
Thanks to all of Flowers of the World’s amazing friends in Holland for hosting our family. See you next time!
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Going Dutch

Filed Under: Holland, Peter Grontas, Sara Cancellaro by Jessica — Leave a comment
June 9, 2010

At least once every year, Flowers of the World’s intrepid co-owner Peter Grontas travels to the center of the floral universe — a.k.a. Holland — to keep his finger on the pulse of the growing (literally!) botanical industry. The 2010 version of the journey to Mecca began this week, along with FOTW’s general manager Sara Cancellaro, and early reports back are showing plenty of exciting developments in the world of flowers. Check out some of the photos below, and keep your eyes open in the coming months, as we bring new flowers from our world to yours.

Peter and Sara visit the grower of the Red Naomi rose, a hot new Dutch variety.

After quality-control checks to determine each rose’s grade, the blooms are grouped in bunches of 20 (versus the typical 25-count bunch of Ecuadorian roses). While a machine packs the roses, they are recounted by man to ensure the correct amount.

At the Metz and Fleura warehouses, flowers are grouped en masse, before being organized and shipped. See if you can find the boxes marked “Flowers of the World”!

Here, peonies, still in tight buds, await packaging. The lush Vanda orchids below, have been packed into boxes with tissue to protect their delicate petals.
Not all blooms destined for our shop are flowers! Interesting plants, including these lush artichokes, will be a striking addition to a future FOTW arrangement. Unfortunately, the fascinating green balls below, Diplocyclos palmatus (also called the Lollipop Climber) cannot be imported to the U.S.
Sara poses with her favorite bloom: the beautiful, lush hydrangea.

Stay tuned for more scenes from FOTW’s trip to Holland in coming days!

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From Holland with Love

Filed Under: Aalsmeer, Balou cymbidiums, Dutch flower auction, Holland, Peter Zwinkels Orchideeën by Jessica — Leave a comment
March 3, 2010

We love getting feedback on our floral designs, and this week we got the mother of all love letters, literally. Peter and Kitty Zwinkels, owners of Peter Zwinkels Orchideeën in Holland, wrote to compliment Flowers of the World for our “innovative” use of the beautiful orange Balou cymbidium orchid, which originated at their nursery! “It is always nice to see where our cymbidiums go and what people are doing with them,” said the Zwinkels, in their email, referring to last week’s window installation by our talented designer, Hazel. The Balou, they continued, “is finding her way around the globe.”

Those Balou cymbidiums, like all the other blooms in Flowers of the World’s stores, embarked on quite a journey before ending up inside a beautiful arrangement on your table or desk. The Zwinkels are just one of many talented flower farmers in Holland, a country in which, according to experts, two-thirds of the world’s flowers are grown. Most of Flowers of the World’s blooms — including our cymbidium orchids, hydrangea, ranunculus, peonies and tulips — are grown in Holland, where the Dutch Flower Auction in Aalsmeer enables the trade of around 12 billion cut flowers and plants each year.

The Auction is a site to behold; it is to the flower industry what the New York Stock Exchange is to Wall Street. In a space upwards of 10 million square feet, more than 4,800 suppliers convene, for nearly 700 traders to buy flowers and plants*. Aalsmeer’s famous auction process is unlike many others in that the price actually lowers as the auction continues. With a clock overhead, bidders watch the price of flowers fall, and then stop the clock to get their blooms at the desired value. The process requires a talent of sorts: bid top dollar, and you may be overpaying, but let the price fall too low, and someone else may snatch up your flowers. Within just hours – most flowers are gone by noon – the purchased blooms are packed and loaded onto airplanes, and bound for flower shops – like Flowers of the World – across the globe.
*Numbers based on a FloraHolland’s 2008 report.
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