On the occasion of Floral Design Day:
Interview with Marc Müller

I am fascinated by working with natural materials every day, being creative and making something with my hands that brings us and people joy. But also the colors and scents, which offer variety depending on the season and never get boring, are a wonderful thing.
I find it exciting to work with flowers and plants and to see how they are created and the end result.
The decision came from an early age. I was always helping out in the garden on the farm with my mother and grandmother. I was attracted to flowers from the moment I learned to walk. From then on, it was always clear to me what I wanted to be.

There is hardly a typical working day. It varies depending on the day of the week or the work that needs to be done. As we work with fresh flowers, there is no precise plan for the day.
As a rule, the flowers and creations are checked, refreshed or replaced in the morning. The orders for the day and the decoration orders are prepared. Then it's time to serve customers, gather ideas, order materials, coordinate deliveries, take orders from the various channels, etc.

It takes a lot of creativity and you should live your profession with passion and joy. However, it is also important to be and remain close to nature, interested and trend-oriented, always discovering and implementing new things.
Personally, I think that standing still is not good, but you should remain true to your principles and a certain style. The most important thing is to put your heart and soul into this wonderful profession.

Things are always changing in this creative and design profession. Although techniques and basic principles have remained pretty much the same, only the design changes or is described as a trend. We continue to develop in certain areas by questioning or further developing basic techniques. A spiral bouquet always remains a spiral bouquet, only the design can change.
Many of the current trends are often found on social media, and if you pay attention, you'll always pick up on things that you can then take up with your design skills.

A major challenge is to maintain our profession and pass on the joy and enthusiasm to our next generations. One of the daily challenges is to be able to exist as a specialist store alongside the large-scale distributors. Flowers and plants are a luxury item, and yet they are an essential part of a gift or a home's ambience.
We also work with fresh products. It is therefore sometimes difficult to calculate correctly and still have a wide range of products.
The sources of supply are also becoming increasingly important and, in this context, the production methods of flowers and plants and how producers use resources.
We have the advantage of appealing to customers with a visual product. We have to use this to establish ourselves as a specialist store: be it for events or corporate orders. We also believe that flowers are needed for a wedding or a funeral. Flowers are emotional ... and somehow you can't do without them.

Being a florist is a passion. In our industry, we have a number of opportunities for further training, development and optimizing one's own standards for further development. All of this is conducive to a career.
Basically, it is important to know what your own aspirations are and to pursue the necessary goals.

There are almost no limits to the possibilities. Creativity is one of the foundations, and without it you are in the wrong profession. We can be creative, design or plan every day. For me, flowers and plants are part of a certain lifestyle of home and living, giving and bringing joy.

Every florist develops their own unique style. Every person is different, and this is also reflected in the way they arrange flowers. 20 florists may be given the same material and the same task, but no two products will be the same. In a creative profession, your own style always emerges.

There are various opportunities, and they should be used. Training and further education shape development and comparison. This allows you to see where you stand in comparison to others.
There are various competitions in which you can take part during your apprenticeship. It's great practice for the final apprenticeship exam to have to work under time pressure and observation and to compete with other participants.
Various courses on different topics are also offered as part of the training. It is also exciting to learn new techniques and designs outside of the training company.
Further training after the apprenticeship can be a professional examination, the higher professional examination or various competitions, exhibitions etc. You should take an interest in this and keep the various options open and pursue them.

Sustainability is becoming increasingly important and is a major topic in our industry.
The procurement sources are often an issue. How sustainable are flowers from different countries? This is a very complex matter, but the focus and awareness of it is equally important. We work with natural products every day, so it also makes sense to pay attention to sustainability. Nevertheless, we also have customers who want a wide range of products all year round. For example, if we only used seasonal and regional flowers, we would only have roses in summer and practically only conifers in winter. Many customers would not appreciate that.
It is good if there is a trend towards sustainability and we should address the issue. It's never a bad thing to rethink if it works in everyday life and can be worked with well.
Small but important things also include waste disposal, environmentally friendly packaging, water, alternatives to Oasis plug-in materials, the circulation of rental containers, portals for the exchange of decorative materials for events, analysis of sources of supply, etc., as well as openness towards customers and professional colleagues.

This is currently a big issue. More and more searches are being made using digital technologies. Social media also provides an insight into business and is a good tool to show what our profession involves. Videos and faces stand out in the reactions and can be disseminated well via these media. We can also show how something is created. This has an inspiring effect, conveys ideas and shows that we are very versatile in our industry.

I hope that in 10 years we will still be seen as a skilled profession and that we can encourage young people to learn and appreciate it.
Innovations will be certain trends. Being innovative sets us apart from the crowd, so it's important to stay committed and promote our beautiful profession to the outside world.

I love almost all flowers. I like to work with selected florals, but I can also work well with whatever material is available.
I like to work generously, and bouquets suit me well and I enjoy making them. I like the seasonality. There are always flowers that I look forward to and enjoy working with.

There were many. And the good thing about it is that we always get to work with beautiful materials and there are always new projects.
The work for the various competitions and for the master's examination were certainly challenging. In the shop, we often have large projects that present a certain challenge. One great project, for example, was a huge cloud of flowers made from thousands of stems of gypsophila, major sporting events, etc.

There are many here too. In most cases, it wasn't the design that was unusual, but perhaps the quantity of flowers or the story behind it. For example, preparing and arranging 1000 roses is unusual. Often wishes can also be unusual, but it is difficult to give a specific example. 😊

There is no specific story. It is always inspiring to hear the reactions of customers who enjoy our work. Weddings and bereavements are very emotional and yet also inspiring because of the reactions and ideas that can arise from them.
We simply have the best job. One that requires a lot of attention to detail but is also associated with a lot of appreciation.