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There was a time when I would yawn when the Flower Council of Holland launched its latest trend. Don’t get me wrong. The photography was beautiful, the concepts stunning, in fact if you were into arty farty floristry and chi chi thoughts they were everything you could want. Trouble is with my traditional floristry, got to sell it to the average punter, hat on they were all a bit twee and faddish and certainly not commercial!! 

Well I still think trends can be twee and faddish but I’ve also come to the conclusion that they are also jolly useful selling tools. Not just amongst the press – who love this sort of thing because they’re cheap fillers that look stunning and for us promote flowers – but also for many, many customers who, lets be honest, don’t always have the same style awareness that we are lucky to have. 

Because not everyone understands flowers, not everyone has what my Mum calls the ‘seeing eye’. For a large proportion of the population trends, themes, styles (whatever name you want to give them) are essential because, in the nicest possible way, they need their hand holding whether they’re buying clothes, decorating their homes or choosing flowers. 

Which is why, having trawled through our photo library from the last 10 years, I wonder if we should be bringing back some of the FCH trends. Because actually not only do they look very gorgeous but they make it so much easier to hang a sales pitch on. Describing something as a Winter Wonderland design is so much more evocative than a mix of white flowers, a Chocolate Truffle bouquet (one of the autumn season colours from Pantone) sounds far lusher than brown and cream flowers. It’s a different way but given the whole fashion world is built on trends maybe we need to start being different again.