"Keep doing things right"

Wendy Verbeek (1978) is one of the youngest arrangers the Holland Flower Council works with. After successfully completing a 4-year course at Nijmegen Horticultural College, she went on to train as a floral arranger (level 4) in Vught. For some time now she has worked with arranger Gerry Loen, another Holland Flower Council partner. As a result of her cooperation with Gerry Loen, Wendy was able to gain considerable (international) experience within a relatively short time – experience on which she can draw in her work as an arranger for the Flower Council. One of the high points in her career was coming second in the young arrangers competition for the East and Central Brabant region. Since then Wendy Verbeek has gone on to handling demonstrations and presentations on behalf of the Holland Flower Council in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. She also contributed to the production of folders on carnations and Amaryllis (one of her favourite flowers) as well as to the Holland Flower Council’s Marguerite Campaign.

Selling power
Wendy has no particular preference when it comes to arranging styles. "I like to be guided by the current trends. Naturally trends, by their nature are transitory. News today is history tomorrow. But trends cannot be ignored. We always incorporate them into our work at the shop. Customers both demand this and react to it. In the end effect we are talking about the selling power of a product. If you can improve this by going along with trends, it would be foolish to decline. This is why I like to use trends as a focus in presentations and demonstrations. Participants come with a view to picking up new ideas to improve sales and trends are often a vehicle they can use ". Wendy Verbeek likes Amaryllis and tulips as cut flowers, Muehlenbeckia is a favourite houseplant and her preferred colours are combinations of red, orange and pink.

New challenges
Enjoying her work is one of Wendy’s primary objectives. "Every day brings new challenges to keep you sharp and – even more important – to keep you learning. This suits me. Why do I do it? Because I want to do something really well. To satisfy the customers who come to the shop. To satisfy the participants at demonstrations and presentations. If customers keep coming back and enthusiastic participants feel they are leaving with a wealth of new ideas, you know you must be doing something right!"