Growers Geest Orchideean, who won the Glazen Tulp 2011 in the Concepts category with their product Phalaenopsis'Royal Blue'
The winners of De Glazen Tulp 2011 were announced at the Steigenberger Kurhaus Hotel in Scheveningen, the Netherlands, last week.
Each year, FloraHolland presents this award to the most promising new product in the categories cut flowers, houseplants, garden plants and sales concepts. The awards were presented at a festive gathering with TV presenter and jury chairman Rob Verlinden having the honour of announcing the winners.
The winners for the Garden Plants category were:
- First prize: Lilium formosanum ‘White Crane’ — Kwekerij Tass from Wateringen.
- Second prize: Dicentra ‘Burning Hearts’ — V.O.F. G.C. van Woudenberg from Zevenhuizen.
- Third prize: Felicia amelloides ‘Felicitara Blue’ — Kwekerij W & A de Rijke from Poeldijk.
The winners for the Houseplants category were:
- First prize: Hippeastrum Double Diamond Group ‘Alfresco’ — Fa L.G. Vreugdenhil & Zn from ’s Gravenzande.
- Second prize: Zantedeschia ‘Odessa’ — by growers including Dynaplant BV from De Lier and Fa L.G.Vreugdenhil & Zn from ’s Gravenzande.
- Third prize: Begonia (Elatior Group), double-flowered, ‘Grace’ — J.&.P. ten Have BV from Maasland.
The winners for the Concepts category were:
- First prize: Phalaenopsis ‘Royal Blue’ from the Royal Family collection by Geest Orchideeën from De Lier.
- Second prize: Vanda Touch of Nature - Handelskwekerij L. vd Weijden BV from Kudelstaart.
- Third prize: Phalaenopsis ‘Singolo’ — Opti-flor B.V. from Monster.
The winners for the Cut Flowers category were:
- First prize: Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Spike’ — Pieter Kolk from Aalsmeer, Ko Kolk from Amstelveen and Sonneveld Hydrangea from Bleiswijk.
- Second prize: Rosa ‘White Naomi!’ — Mermin Roses from Amstelveen, Roseworld from De Lier and Velden Roses from Wateringen.
- Third prize: Pulsatilla vulgaris ‘Alba’ — Jac. M. van Schagen from Heerhugowaard.
The jury said the winner in the cut flowers category, Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Spike’, a was “magnificent fairytale of a flower, despite its name!” They said they were confident that it would be a runaway success commercially.
Every year, hundreds of new products (‘novelties’) and concepts are introduced at FloraHolland. These are offered via auction clock sales but also go through the intermediary organisation FloraHolland Connect. Historically, product innovation has always been important to the Dutch floricultural industry. New products help growers distinguish themselves among their customers, while for traders, new products offer a chance to surprise the customer with something innovative.
The winners are selected and nominated from among the hundreds of new cultivars and concepts introduced to auction each year. Until this year, it was an expert jury and a consumer-focussed jury that made the nominations and selected the winners, with the trade also represented, as part of the expert jury. But this time, all buyers and sellers, too, were able to lend influence the process by indicating from the outset which products in each of the four categories were their favourites. Florists, retailers and garden centres are always on the lookout for innovations to entice customers. Buyers and sellers with export firms, traders and wholesalers are at the heart of the floriculture chain: thanks to the daily exposure they have to the market, they are in a good position to indicate which novelty has been the year's most successful novelty product or concept.
Following several online voting rounds, and once the expert jury had made its deliberations, the consumer-focused jury met at the end of April to select the winners from among the nominated products.
