Slow Flowers Society and its publishing partner BLOOM Imprint released their 2024 report on noteworthy lifestyle insights for flower farming and floral design professionals, identifying seven influential topics for the coming year. Titled “The Year of Simplicity,” the report cites an increasing desire among consumers to make conscious and sustainable decisions about how they spend money and time.
Report authors Debra Prinzing and Robin Avni are partners in BLOOM Imprint, the boutique publishing venture co-founded in 2021. Prinzing issued Slow Flowers’ first forecast in 2015 and continued producing yearly reports until she was joined by Avni in 2021 when the partners expanded the forecast to encompass a broader focus on horticulture, gardening, and consumer lifestyle themes.
Prinzing is inspired by wide-ranging conversations with florists, growers, influencers, makers, and educators, while Avni contributes her point of view and expertise in cultural and consumer behavior informed by her career in trend analysis.
By highlighting the concept of “Simplicity” for 2024, the authors take note of floral practitioners who are building purposeful, values-driven businesses and who are communicating these ideas as brand differentials. “For floral professionals, this means making seasonality and sustainability more central to their enterprises,” Prinzing explains. “In the larger cultural context, we believe that people are ‘seeking less’ – as a response to excessive consumption, commercialism, and the smothering presence of technology, among other prevailing issues of the day.”
Avni continues: “Consumers want to return to their core values. This does not mean a lack of progress, but whether for caution or conviction, people want to make smart and safe choices – for their lifestyles and for the environment. Simplicity is the antidote to what we otherwise can’t control.”