Floriculture Trends: Picking the Right Colors, Choosing the Right Plants

A while back we talked about why color sells plants, I’d like to revisit this idea and talk more about floriculture trends and ideas on how you can stay ahead. Color trends within the industry seems to be a key step in keeping up to date and with Pantone officially releasing their colors of the year for 2016, many businesses should start taking note especially in the floriculture and cut flower industry where color trends tend to filter through from home interior design and weddings.

Have you ever followed Pantone’s color reports? Every year Pantone’s experts travel the world to access global trends and “express in color what is taking place in the global zeitgeist”. From their color reports you can generally expect to see them have some influence in fashion, home and wedding color trends for the upcoming year. Although these colors can rarely be matched in true nature but you can at least focus on including a few shades based around the color that should happily satisfy consumer demand.

Another thing to note is that Pantone color trends can take longer to filter down. 2012 was the year of Tangerine Tango and throughout 2013 there was an increase in demand of coral and tangerine flowers. 2014 was the year of Radiant Orchid, beloved by fashion bloggers and popping up in plenty of wedding florals and this color is expected to continue to be a new favourite throughout this year and probably the next. This is a color trend that was early picked up in the Netherlands who are often considered trendsetters in the floral color selection as well.

Image: Pantone

Pantones color choices for 2016, Rose Quartz and Serenity, are going to be a huge hit for floriculture being that they are two soft pastel hues universally appealing to both men and women. It may be worthwhile getting ahead of the trend while it’s still fresh!

Now we have the colors down, how do you determine the best plants to focus on? This could be down to preference by consumers but the Flower Council of Holland (our key trend setters) having been introducing the public to new plants with the promotional activity house plant of the month. As their website states:

“Research indicates that consumers mainly get their inspiration for plants from point of sale, this is also where they ultimately are tempted into buying. Let your customers discover a new plant each month as well.”

- Flower Council Holland

Their choices for 2016 look likely to be hits with choices such as white fragrant plants for March, peperomia’s in May, and potted roses for July. You can see their choices and posters for the first 6 months here.

Image: Flower Council Holland Promotional Posters

Picking the right colors and choosing the right plants is only the start. You need to have the capabilities to produce the best floriculture crops possible and the perfect outlet to display them which is were GGS comes in. We can help you choose the right equipment to start you up for success, take a look at our rolling benches, our benches can be used in multiple ways and can increase production by up to 50% giving you better quality crops and more floriculture to sell. If you are looking for the perfect retail environment, we have that covered too! We’ve worked with many garden centers in the past to help create the best retail environment possible for their customers. Positive retail experiences lead to more sales, so if your looking to extend or update your garden center this year why not contact us today and see how we can help.

Hopefully this has given you some new ideas for 2016/17 and if there are any particular trends that you like to keep up to date with we’d love to hear in the comments section below!