The final took place on Wednesday 8 November, at wholesale centre Cultra in Aalsmeer. More than 25 participants designed an Advent arrangement, using the recently introduced black Oasis Bioline Eychenne heart.
Student Rik Masson seized spot 2 and also won the ‘audience favourite’ award (made possible by Smithers-Oasis): an impressive feat for a junior florist. Marchien van den Berg (of flower shop De Takkenwijven) came third.
“You get the task description one and a half week in advance. This time it was an Advent arrangement. You also learn about the requirements that the design must meet. This time lighting had to be incorporated and the base was a heart of black Oasis”, Lucinda explains.
“Additionally, the flower arrangement had to keep for five weeks, during the entire Advent time. Designing and making such a flower arrangement is a lot of work. I sometimes worked on it throughout the night, but winning the first prize is a great thing…”, she continued.
The standard of floristry on display at the event was remarkably high. Photographs of the designs are available here, courtesy of photographer Ron de Vries.
The Dutch florist association VBW, a member of Florint, organizes the VBW Flowercup every year as part of Floral Movement – its series of professional floristry competitions.
All the Flowercup competition designs were judged by jury members Max van de Sluis, Dini Holtrop and Jaap Wisse. The organisation of the competition was in the hands of Erika Oldenhof.
The complete top 5 was as follows:
- Lucinda den Adel (Flora-Inn Bathmen) – 81.50 points
- Rik Masson (student Aeres / De Violier) – 76.25 points
- Marchien van den Berg (De Takkenwijven) – 75.75 points
- Henrieke Lankveld (Flower Studio Han Fokkink) – 74.67 points
- Lisa Kolk (Meesterlijk Geschikt) – 73.67 points