Herma Spijkerman (born 1955) grew up in a small flower shop cum garden centre. She thought that she could ‘escape’ by going into nursing. But blood will out, and after 10 years she nonetheless opted for a career in flowers.

Apart from her Nursing diploma she also has qualifications as a gardener, florist and Master Flower Arranger. She has also been trained as a creative crafts teacher and attended a management course at higher vocational education level. She ran her own shop for 20 years and also a wholesale business in floristry products from the Far East for 15 years. She speaks both excellent English and German. She combines her work as a product designer for an export company with assignments as a freelance arranger.

Retail experience

Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe are her main areas of work. Product demonstrations, workshops for florists and staff training are her primary activities. Her audiences consist mainly of florists and staff from supermarkets and DIY stores, wholesalers and garden centres. She always has her own retail experience ready to hand. "I am always focused on business. My audience need to be able to get sales out of it. Three hours fiddling with an arrangement is not going to make a profit."

'A rock star!'

She has good memories of major shows in Poland and Belarus, with the finest products, light shows and pounding music and jam-packed halls filed with hundreds of florists. At the end of the show they were literally standing on the tables. The Polish interpreter accompanying Herma, who was initially fairly condescending about the work of arrangers, was astonished: 'You are like a rock star!' he cried in amazement. Herma gets her inspiration from trade fairs and many hundreds of books by world-famous top arrangers - a collection that now covers more than two walls in her house. "I can spend evenings leafing through them, lapping it all up. But then I am addicted to flowers!"

Football and golf

Her personal favourites are the white and pale green flowers in particular. She therefore often reaches for nice big roses and orchids. Outside work Herma likes to hit a ball on the golf course. She packed her golf shoes for a trip to China. Her client turned out to be an enthusiast, and during a round of 18 holes they had plenty of time to discuss the profession of flower arranging from a different perspective. The Friesland-born arranger can also regularly be found on the terraces of FC Heerenveen football club. "When a crowd of 25,000 sing the Friesian anthem before the start of a match, that gives me goosebumps!"