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Featured Designer

Els Teunissen

Between her highly regarded floral design skills and the extensive travels that keep her on the road an average of nine months out of the year, Dutch floral designer Els Teunissen could be known as the Holland Globetrotter. Els has literally traveled the world creating, teaching and spreading her joy for flowers, from events in almost every one of the 50 States and the United Nations to the Academy Awards and the Royal Wedding of the Crown Prince of Holland.
President of Floral Productions in Des Moines, Iowa and consultant designer for the Flower Council of Holland, Els has felt a deep connection with flowers since childhood. “Born and raised in Holland, flowers have always been my passion. My grandfather had a flower shop and my father was a landscape designer. From a very young age I was fascinated with flowers. With such a strong bond, it seemed only natural that I would roll into a profession where flowers are my life’s work. What I feel about flowers is almost sacred. They are magical.”
How does Els’s passion translate into how she designs? “When I look at a flower I am always mesmerized. I never forget that the flower is the number one player in the design. It’s important to keep that beauty. My design sensibilities change as my perception of the flower changes. I work in the moment; never planned. The flower itself creates the style. You must be willing to go in your design where the flower leads you. It’s very important that there’s movement with flowers, they move on as we move on.”
Els finds this challenge more prevalent in the United States, where shop owners may have a false sense of economic security in keeping it status quo. “This thinking must change,” according to Els. “We must stop being on automatic pilot because there’s so much competition now. If retail shops don’t move forward and become unique in some way, then more and more people will simply buy from the supermarket.”
“To distinguish ourselves from places like supermarkets, big box stores and convenience stores, the type, variety and quality of what we sell must be different,” Els states. “We must be unique with a unique product; a beautiful, high quality product. Flower shops must be willing to recognize that price is not the key player; flowers are the key players.”
Is high quality product limited to big parties and the money typically found in big cities? Not according to Els, “Wherever you are, you can sell the most beautiful, exclusive and high quality product. People will gravitate to quality.” And that’s exactly what the people in the local Des Moines market think of Els’s flowers. “I have heard people say ‘Els flowers are on steroids!’ I am willing to take the risk and buy the more exclusive flowers because it is not actually a risk at all. It is good business.”
Utilizing higher end, excusive type products in your design gets you noticed. It sets you apart. “I recently did a wedding in Des Moines in which the clients said ‘go for it.’ They trusted me because of my reputation for quality. The bride loves tulips so I used masses of super long white French tulips. The best tulips I could get. They were stunning. It was this quality that the bride, her family and guests responded to.”
Els’s biggest enjoyment in her work, in addition to the beauty of flowers themselves, is getting others to see the beauty and potential in flowers. “What I enjoy most is, I teach. I try to open the doors of creativity. When I see people say ‘wow, I didn’t know I could do that!’ - This to me is fun. And in return, I learn so much, especially from the ones who come in totally fresh. It is the best experience. They are empty canvases and open books.”
And in spite of all of her worldwide travel and years of experience, Els Teunissen, too, is an open book, “I am 59 years old but everyday I still learn.”