"In my work I have visited nearly every country in Europe. I accompanied the Dutch Crown Prince to Japan to commemorate 400 years of friendship between Japan and the Netherlands. However every time I have the privilege of doing a project in the US, I am inspired  by how enthusiastically people here respond to our ideas."  

Making an Impression "I also have an explanation for this. Many American florists and designers are impressed at shows and demonstrations by beautiful large floral arrangements. Personally, I prefer keeping things somewhat smaller and, especially, showing off the technique that I used. That makes a good impression, in my experience."  

Itching Hands 
"I encountered the best example of this at an American wholesale company. I was given a tour there and we entered a hall where ten people were making bouquets for a large chain of flower shops. They gathered the flowers together at random and sleeved them. When I saw them, my hands began to itch. I asked whether I could also make a bouquet using the  hand-tied  method. That is a technique that results in a handsome, full bouquet. I then placed my hand-tied bouquet next to the 'gathered' bouquet and asked the following question, "Which bouquet do you think would sell the best?"  

Tremendous Enthusiasm 
"Well, that certainly stirred things up a bit! At some point, they even called in the manager, since they had never seen anything quite like this before. The explanation for this is simple. The basic training of staff in wholesale companies is less compared to the staff in flower shops. While at the same time, the people here eagerly want to master the profession. There is tremendous enthusiasm to learn something new. That is part of this profession – one in which you never stop learning. This also applies to me. Soon I will be visiting the UK and Italy, particularly to observe and learn about how my colleagues are working there."