Home cooking, growing vegetables, digital detoxing… All good ways to press the pause button and escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. A striking trend in this slow movement is a yearning for the artisan products of days gone by, back to a time when people didn’t spend all day running around, when people had more time for each other and when life was still simple and peaceful. Did you know that plants can also help you to relax? They purify the air and raise the oxygen levels in your home and office. Various studies have also shown that the colour green actually has a relaxing effect, makes us more energetic and has a positive influence on our state of mind.
In this edition we are presenting three themes Offline, Skin and Eclectic Blend which underline the slow life and the search for identity. You can read more about them later in this magazine. We will also introduce two of our suppliers, SV.CO who grows a wide range of flowering plants in modern packaging and Smit Kwekerijen who produces trendy green houseplants, with Eden as its best-known collection.
Enjoy!
The Floréac Team
P.S. All the themes and the accompanying POS material can be found in our webshop: www.floreac.shop.
OFFLINE indoor
Getting away from technological gadgets, the internet and media hypes, that’s Offline in a nutshell. That means a conscious decision to choose slowness and silence, not to mention the desire to be without an opinion for once, and to simply relax and experience things.
Offline works with inconspicuous mid-tones that at first glance might seem a little lacking in style, such is the slightly aged mix of green and blue. The same applies to the natural materials: subdued, weathered tones and nostalgic ox-blood red all refer to the slow life.
For Offline, we have selected a range of houseplants – orchids, bromelias and various green plants – as well as capsicums and other greenhouse plants. As a result, you can include this theme in all departments of your garden centre.
For many years, Smit Kwekerijen has been synonymous with the collection method known as ‘plant hunting’. This houseplant grower travels all over the world in search of undiscovered species which can be bred and hybridised sustainably. The result: a unique range of green houseplants that respond to the needs of plant lovers all over the world.
Pot plant grower focuses on exotic and innovative greenery
“I’ve always been fascinated by plants” begins Obed Smit, the founder of Smit Kwekerijen in Sappemeer, a village in the Dutch province of Groningen. “I started helping my grandfather in his nursery at a young age and then set up my own when I was 17.” It started out as a small-scale project, “We barely had 100 m² to work with and specialised in a fairly traditional range of flowering plants.”
From flowers to foliage
Over 30 years later, Smit Kwekerijen has blossomed into a leading European grower – not of flowering plants, but of green houseplants. “Green plants give
you more options” explains Obed Smit, “They also have a longer shelf life.” The nursery came up with the Eden Collection stick-in labels, which helped to make this transition a success. “We were the first company to give our plants appealing and expressive names. That really caught on in the 90s.”
In the same period, Smit Kwekerijen started working with Floréac for the first time. “We have always enjoyed doing business with you,” says Obed Smit. “Floréac has a wide international network and we started to serve the market together.” These days, the range extends right across Europe and even as far as Korea, Japan and Canada.
Sustainable plant hunting
Over the years, the range has grown to include a wide variety of rare and exotic houseplants. Smit literally pioneered the hunt for new species. “I focus on plant hunting, so I spend a lot of time travelling around the world in search of undiscovered species in South America, Africa and Asia. You often still come across unspoiled nature there.” So what happens to the plants that you find? “Our breeding department grows and cross-breeds them to develop new varieties. We experiment quite a lot to see if we can produce something wonderful.”
The nursery is committed to making this process sustainable.
“We try to grow our plants in an environmentally-friendly way.” For example, in order to combat bee mortality in the Netherlands, all chemical pesticides and herbicides have been systematically replaced with organic alternatives. As a result of these kinds of initiatives, Smit Kwekerijen now bears the Fair Flora label. Fair Flora is an organisation that focuses on the sale of sustainable and fairly traded flowers and plants. The label provides transparency about the ecological footprint of horticultural products.
Something for everyone
Smit Kwekerijen is passionate about innovation, but always careful when selecting new plants
to add to its collection. Plants only make the grade if they have a distinctive colour or shape and respond to the needs of plant lovers. The nursery believes in getting the right range in the right place.
They have come up with various ways of putting their mission into practice. “Blogger Mama Botanica draws attention to our experiments: do people who are interested in plants find them appealing, exciting, interesting or nothing to write home about?”
company Smit Kwekerijen
location Sappemeer (Pays-Bas)
surface area over 16 ha
workforce more than 200 permanent
employees
active European market
This immediately makes it clear whether a plant has potential. “We also get direct feedback from Floréac and the garden centres we work with,” adds Smit. “And last but not least, our clients can find answers to all their questions on our website.”
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DELOSPERMA ECHINATUM BEGONIA MACULATA
SKIN !
Customising our bodies with tattoos and piercings is extremely trendy right now. This allows us to add a unique dimension to our identity, but at the same time, it expresses a deep yearning for self-expression and authenticity. The theme features many soft shades which refers to the skin, eyes and lips: pink, ice blue, skin colour, earth shades and off-white.
Skin has a feminine design language: organic, complex and with soft curves. Original plant containers and drop-ins add the perfect finishing touch to this surprising theme.
Say pot chrysanthemum and people immediately think of SV.CO. Almost single-handedly, this Maasdijk grower has managed to transform this underestimated plant into a true phenomenon. Its popularity is not just due to the special characteristics of pot chrysanthemums, such as fairly easy care and a long flowering period. SV.CO’s outstanding quality, logistical efficiency and wide range also played a crucial role.
Pot chrysanthemum pioneer focuses on diversity, sustainability and digitalisation
“The roots of SV.CO date back to 1965 when Strijbis was set up,” explains co-owner Martijn Vreugdenhil. “In 2006 this Maasdijk company merged with Verbeek, a local grower of pot chrysanthemums. In 2011, the name was changed from StrijbisVerbeek to SV.CO to ensure a more international image. We supply pot chrysanthemums all over Europe
these days, focusing on a wide range. As a result, we offer something to suit every client.”
Innovation and segmentation
This wide range stems from long-term investments in innovation and development at SV.CO. Martijn: “As a result, we succeeded in creating a wide range of looks and shades. We then segmented this for each
target group, allowing us to market them more efficiently. For example, we achieve this by offering different packaging for different types of clients. This increases the appeal of the product. We also work with trendwatchers to determine which colours and looks will be popular in the near future. The result: today, pot chrysanthemums are trendy. ”
Chrysanthemums might be fairly easy for end clients to look after, but growing them is no easy task. “Pot chrysanthemums are short-day plants. This means they flower best given fewer hours of daylight, in autumn for example. Thankfully, we can simulate this situation perfectly in the greenhouses. In addition, pot chrysanthemums can be very spontaneous when it comes to flowering: things can suddenly move very fast in good weather. At these times, we naturally need to ensure sufficient processing capacity.”
No harmful substances
Sustainability is high on the agenda at SV.CO.
“We have been MPS-ProductProof for the past two years. This means that we take leaf samples of our own products to check them for active substances. Not only does this allow us to guarantee that our plants are free of harmful substances, we can also check our own suppliers to see whether they meet all the retailers’ requirements. This allows us to offer guarantees relating to responsible production.”
And SV.CO goes even further: for the past eight years, it has already been possible to order products with packaging materials made from recycled cardboard. In addition, modern techniques and solar panels on the processing halls ensure the optimal use of energy. “We must all help to protect our planet, so for us it’s perfectly normal to make these kinds of efforts.”
Flourishing collaboration
Although the collaboration between Floréac and SV.CO started before the merger of Strijbis and Verbeek, it has evolved further in recent years. “Our partnership is characterised by good agreements and guaranteed availability and
quality, even in times of scarcity. And we often get together to discuss the best ways to serve our clients.”
Digitalisation also ensures that the collaboration between Floréac and SV.CO can run even more efficiently in the future. Martijn: “Orders, internal checks and invoicing will take place automatically from now on. This saves us a great deal of time and reduces the risk of mistakes. The result is that both the buyers at Floréac and our sales team can spend less time on administration and more time on establishing valuable customer contacts.”
company SV.CO
location Maasdijk (The Netherlands)
surface area 16 ha
workforce 350,000 per week
Personnel: 100 permanent employees
Active: European market
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ECLECTIC BLEND indoor
Combining styles allows you to shape your identity in a unique way. Eclectic Blend mixes influences from the 15th and 16th-century realistic paintings with Art Deco and graphic style elements, then, to pour all of this with a sauce of present-day heat.
The result is a wide but subdued colour palette which evokes the atmosphere of the still-life paintings and portraits of days gone by. Eclectic Blend goes for brown, red, purple and burgundy with complex shapes and soft curves.
This theme can be repeated in different departments of your garden centre. Alongside houseplants in attractive pots – such as chrysanthemums, orchids and cyclamens – Eclectic Blend also features a range of greenhouse plants including brassicas, heuchera and celosia.
