New Floristry Design Skills and Techniques and Sustainable Industry Practice

The Australian Floristry Industry is facing a number of important challenges at present. The most obvious being the ongoing lack of water resources, plus the increasing transportation and fuel costs for growers of cut flowers. This combined with a lack of design skills in employees enabling the designer and retailer to create smarter designs, using fewer materials and utilising non-traditional horticultural materials, has prompted the Fellow to travel to Germany and the Netherlands to develop a comprehensive understanding as to why these two countries are so innovative and successful on many levels within the industry.
The Fellow found that the Floral Industry in Europe is well established and has a vast number of potential
clients, they have also developed a high level of skills that are not readily available to the large retail competition, and use more unusual floral products that are more cost effective to produce. The Fellow intends to use these new skills, ideas and insights gained in Europe, and pass them on to the Australian Floristry Industry through classes delivered through the TAFE institute, trade magazines and newspaper articles as well as large scale floral demonstrations.