What is your favourite colour this Christmas?

The best holidays at the end of the year are Christmas! Happy times, family and delicious food. Beautiful things and accessories give your home a festive atmosphere. Then there’s the typical green atmosphere creators, such as luxurious-looking orchids in a whole host of warm colours.
What are the Christmas trends this year? What colours will we see on the Christmas tree? And what accessories and plants can you use to bring Christmas 2015 into your home? Read about the trends and allow yourself to be inspired.

Winter stroll

A wonderful thing to do during the Christmas holidays is take a wintry stroll through the countryside. Bring this natural atmosphere into your home with wooden accessories and a colourful blend of natural materials. Bring the feel of the outdoors, indoors. It’s mainly warm, wintry colours that do this: yellow, purple and blue. Look for a purple Paphiopedilum or a Cymbidium in a shade of brown. An orchid in its natural form looks totally hot next to the wooden Christmas tree, creating an extra natural look!

Scandinavian robustness

It’s not so long ago that Scandinavian robustness blew over with a fresh wind from the far north – a trend that creates a warm look in the home. Hints of denim, copper and ochre yellow blend in with natural and robust materials perfectly. Choose a robust Christmas with copper bells in your tree, for example. Allow the colours blue and ochre yellow to re-emerge in your orchids.

Romantic pastel

Experience the romantic atmosphere this Christmas. Pastel colours and geometric shapes form the basis of this trend. Silver highlights and sparkling glitters create a festive feel. You can extend this charming, romantic atmosphere through to your Christmas tree. Combine it with different soft shades of orchids, such as a soft pink Phalaenopsis, otherwise known as a butterfly orchid. It is wonderful to come home to this romantic atmosphere.

Magical glamour

The days are shorter. Announce the magical time around Christmas. Luxurious materials with a golden glow give your house a chic look. A bit of silver, glitters and the correct lighting bring magical glamour to your home. To top this all off in a chic manner, just add the queen of plants: the orchid. Pure white in a gold and silver pot. Or even a ‘red’ variety of orchid. Don’t hold back this Christmas!

Source: www.wonenonline.nl

Style guide Autumn Winter 2015

Click here to see the style guide Autum Winter 2015.
We hope you enjoy reading this style guide!

On behalf of the Art of Life campaign,
consisting of all the growers of pot orchids in the Netherlands

Natasja van Ruiten

Winner Orchid of the Year Competition Announced!

Cymbidium Cali Night is the most beautiful

With extensive voting on Facebook, following three preliminary rounds and an exciting finale, you made your choice. The Cymbidium Cali Night from grower OrchiDiva was crowned ‘Orchid of the year’. The unique, fabulously dark – almost black —  colour of its blossom highlights its beauty. Take a close look at the white rim along the outside of the flower. It accentuates the colour even more. A true champion!

But don’t forget the runner-up. Following an exciting race, you chose the Phalaenopsis Twist from grower SoNatural as number two. Its twisted shape and marvellously clear floral pattern adds to its uniqueness. A blooming good number two.

The other finalists were:
·         Vanda Sunanda ‘Moonlight Blue’ from grower Anco Pure Vanda
·         Phalaenopsis Little Kolibri Orchids ‘Morelia’ from grower OK Plant
·         Phalaenopsis ‘Royal Pink’ from grower VG Orchids
·         Phalaenopsis ‘Purple Rain’ from grower Sion

Jen Stanbrook – Orchid Stylist of the UK

Jen Stanbrook is the author of Love Chic Living, a multi-award winning UK Home Interiors blog.She has an insatiable love of home decor, interior design and home accessories. The orchids inits many flower shapes, colours and patterns are the perfect home accessories, according to Jen. As the Orchid Stylist, Jen will inspire and inform you about the versatility of orchids and their uses.

The ‘De Orchidee Stylist’ (The Orchid Stylist) campaign forms part of the Art of Life campaign. The Art of Life is a joint venture between all growers of potted orchids in the Netherlands. Each country has its own Orchid Stylist who helps and inspires the consumer, media and specialist traders when styling their interiors with orchids of different varieties, shapes, colours and sizes. The Orchid Stylist will therefore have an important role to play during ‘De Dag van de Orchidee’ (Orchid Day) on Thursday 3 September, presenting the variety of orchids available through the media and giving tips and tricks about orchids to anyone who needs them. In brief: the Orchid Stylist will take everyone by the hand and allow the plant to speak for itself in all its glory.

Orchid enjoys royal status

The orchid is called the ‘Queen Of Flowers’. And many royals and other celebrities are mad about the flower!

That love is not restricted to admiring and enjoying orchids in a vase. Princes, princesses, First Ladies and other VIPs are more than happy to lend their name to a beautiful cultivar.

Men as well

Queen Elizabeth has done it, and Michelle Obama, Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton have also given their name to an orchid. Don’t think that it’s just women either: Nelson Mandela and Sir Elton John are also members of this select club.

Royal couple

In 2012 the naming of orchids entered a new phase, when a white and red variety was given the name of two people. Prince William and Princess Kate Middleton, who had married the year before, lent both their names to this orchid.

Máxima

The Dutch royal family have not (yet) given their name to an orchid, but they are very familiar with this exotic flower, as depicted on a beautiful silk fan which can be found in the Royal Archives. The fan is painted in delicate pastel shades with singing birds and beautiful orchids. It was presented to Queen Emma in about 1890. More than a hundred years later Queen Beatrix gave the fan as a gift to the then Princess Máxima. In the unfortunate event that there are no fresh orchids in the Royal residence Villa Eikenhorst, the current queen can still enjoy the beauty of the ‘Queen of Flowers’ thanks to this fan!

Silk fan with beautiful orchids and singing birds

The orchid is a much-loved plant; most people have one or more orchids in their home. There is always an orchid to match your interior style. It doesn’t take much for the orchid to look its best – the plant has the ‘wow’ factor built in and is already eye-catching. In other words, orchids are the easy way to make things special!

In this style guide Spring Summer 2015 we show various orchids that match this season’s plant and interior trends. We hope that this will inspire you to use our photos or request orchids for a future photo shoot. All the orchids shown will be widely available from outlets including florists and garden centres over the coming seasons.

Click here to see the style guide Spring Summer 2015.
We hope you enjoy reading this style guide!

On behalf of the Art of Life campaign,
consisting of all the growers of pot orchids in the Netherlands

Natasja van Ruiten

Which one do you think is the most beautiful?

Phalaenopsis Picolo Red took the honours last year! The most beautiful and most unique Phalaenopsis of the year. Out of 18 varieties of Phalaenopsis, fans on social media choose this one as their favourite.

Orchid of the year
A new year, a new competition. Growers posed their beauties in front of the camera. Many varieties of orchids posed as models: a totally new variety of orchid; or an orchid with a very unusual floral pattern; but also one with a very unusual shape.

You can see them all pass in review on Facebook. So, it’s up to you. Which one do you think is the most beautiful and most unique orchid of the year? Vote for your favourite via Facebook. We await your choice with bated breath!

Not only outdoors a splendour of flowers. Keukenhof offers an abundance of beauty indoors as well. During eight weeks you can enjoy the most wonderful orchids in the Beatrix pavilion. Growers sent in their most beautiful specimens. These have then been included in a magical orchid show. 2015 is Van Gogh-year in Keukenhof. Van Gogh is the inspiration for, among others, the flower shows. Intrigued? From 20 March through 17 May you are welcome at Keukenhof in Lisse, the most beautiful spring park in the world, unique and for many years the scene for the most gorgeous photos.

For more information visit www.keukenhof.nl

The website orchidsinfo.eu has been given a makeover. Under the slogan ‘Orchids make it easy to make it special’ the website provides a platform for consumers and the trade. The updated website brings all online and offline activities together, with specific news items about the promotional campaign. It’s a fascinating place that constantly offers fresh inspiration and innovation.

The website is available in six languages (Dutch, French, English, German, Italian and Russian). The heart of the website consists of a host of photographs, tips and blogs by passionate fellow professionals and prominent orchid lovers who share their experiences with the plant.

Refresher “More than 2100 consumers visit our site every week. So it feels like we’re refurbishing 300 living rooms a day,” says Natasja van Ruiten, project manager at fresh retail. “orchidsinfo.eu was last updated in 2012, so it’s a good time to introduce a thorough redesign now. A requirement for the new design for the website was that our target groups should feel at home and that the site is in keeping with the campaign’s strategic focus, whereby the orchid which you can now buy everywhere is special and a source of inspiration for many people.

Consumer and trade
The colour palette has been refreshed and fits with the trends and the various colours of the orchids. Alongside the design and layout, improvements have also been made to the functionality of the website. Not only is the site tailored more to mobile visitors and can be accessed on tablets and mobile phones, there is also a clear distinction between the consumer area and the area for the trade, which provides specific information for wholesalers and tips for florists.

The campaign to promote orchids is being executed in collaboration with all the Netherlands’ pot orchid growers. Under the label ‘Art of Life’ they have joined forces to inspire and inform you about the versatility and uses of orchids.

Picolo Red is the beauty of the month

You indicated your choice of the most beautiful and most unusual Phalaenopsis on our Facebook page in large numbers. A total of 3761 fans voted. Despite the fact that Picolo Red did very well in all countries, there were still notable differences. In the UK Royal Blue with its unusual blue colour was particularly popular. Purple Monet, white with purple markings, did very well in Germany. People in Russia clearly favour white, and Formidablo and Duoboga Ikaria received the most votes. White as a colour did very well across the board, since Meander, Eva, Silhouette and White World also received many votes. Is also worth noting that all 18 butterfly orchids each receive more than 100 votes, and many consumers stated in the comments that they felt that all the orchids are very beautiful.

Winner of orchid arrangement
Alongside the Picolo Red, there are also other winners, selected from all the fans who voted. The following winners will receive a fantastic orchid arrangement delivered to their home:

• The Netherlands: Ellen van Gorkum
• United Kingdom: Gisela Werner
• Germany: Angela Urmston
• Russia: Марина Фредова

Art of Life would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.