These last months have been all about getting the Flower Constellations ready in time for them to be shipped to our backers by the end of August. 

Well, the Flower Constellations are packed and will be sent to all early adapters this week.
Time for the next step: spreading the word.

Best place to start and nationally debut the Flower Constellations to stores, press, bloggers and other design loving professionals is undoubtedly ShowUP: trade show for home and gift.

So we're packing up our goodies and will be at the Expo Haarlemmermeer this coming Sunday and Monday (2+3 September).
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Will we see you there?  

ShowUP
Trade fair for home and gift

Expo Haarlemmermeer
Stelling 1
2141 SB Vijfhuizen

Sunday September 2 2018, 10:00 - 18:00
Monday September 3 2018, 10:00 - 18:00

Only accessible for professionals
​Free entrance after registration

<Click here for more information about the fair>

The World Packaging Design Society runs an influential packaging design blog featuring contemporary packaging designs from around the world.

We're very happy we made it onto their feed with our Waterworks box! 
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Definitely worth checking out on Instagram.

We're very happy to be featured in one of the Netherlands' biggest magazines: Libelle.

The Libelle Tuinspecial is definitely worth a read, and i'm not just saying that because Waterworks is in there: i'm in love with the relaxed gardening style and lush green gardens the magazine showcases.

​Anyway, here's a close-up of the publication: 

A -rough- translation of the text:
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"Forgot to water your house plants again? This funny Water reservoir solves the problem (and your feeling of guilt). It's called Waterworks and does what it's made for: gradually distributing water and preventing the soil from drying out." 

​Click here for a pdf of the publication

Dutch website Tuin&Balkon is full of tips for urban gardening.
A while ago they wrote a lovely piece about our design Waterworks (click -in dutch) 

And now they wrote this very sweet piece about our new Flower Constellations. - Thank you Mathieu!
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​Check it our here (in dutch)

We might be all about the flowers these days, the love for our houseplants did not diminish one bit. 
With the weather looking up and the days stretching, our domestic greenery can use a little extra love.
And water.
​They also usually like water. 

To celebrate the new growing season (and make up for lack of attention), we've installed a 10% Waterworks discount for as long as the Crowdfunding campaign lasts.
Simply use discountcode 'crowdfunding' at check-out, and save an instant 10%!

Now that we've reached our Kickstarter goal in only 11 days (yeeaah!), we are not slowing down with our compaign.
No sir! No way!

Of course we took the time to sip on a glass of bubbles (or three), but now that we've made it this far, we're upping our ante:
​Let's go for stretch goals! ​

If we get to €8.000,- in funding, we'll be getting serious about the Propagation constellation:

​a brass tool similar to the Flower Constellations that is perfect for sprouting larger seeds and pits and for the propagation of cuttings. ​

Good to know, as soon as we've developed it, we'll prepare a Propagation Constellation prototype and add it as a Reward possibility for you to pre-order.

So if you haven't pledged already, do so now and unlock a new universe of possibilities.

Three days into our campaign and i'm finally finding the time to tell you a bit more about our Flower Constellations and their back story.

I'll be posting other updates about aspects of our design and production-process in the future, but for now, let me tell you a bit about the journey preceding our Flower Constellations crowdfunding campaign.

After designing and successfully crowdfunding Waterworks, bringing our natural watering system to market turned out to be less straightforward than we had hoped.

We learned a great deal about running a business that first year and started to craft a strategy about the way we would develop House of Thol further.

Working best while coming up with solutions in our own living environment, we focus on keeping our designs close to ourselves.
We aim to create durable products that add value to our daily lives and help us maintain a green lifestyle.

Four years on, we have established a worldwide network of supporters and shops, and have sold almost 5000 Waterworks-sets.
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We are ready for a new green product to add to our House of Thol collection.

​A large Dutch Garden center opted to produce it, but ran into management-issues and production stalled.
​Last year we took matters back into our own hands and developed the Flower Constellations: based on the same flat-pack multi-fit principle, but for flowers and with an improved design. ​

A perfect fit, not because we're into astrology that much, but because we love that millenia ago, people tried to make sense of the skies and created the constellations as some kind of memory aid. 
Telling each other stories so their order of things would not be forgotten.

The code is valid this whole week and can be used for all products in our webshop. ​

​#whatsyoursign

      Flowers are without a doubt nature's living gems and we should all be surrounded by them all the time. Definitely outdoors (you know, for the bees), but indoors as well.

​Before we start,
<< here's a pinnable image for you to store and make it easy to visit back whenever you need to. (also: yeeaah, Repins!!)

As we just agreed on, getting a bunch of flowers is lovely anytime, anywhere. 

Yet you don't always have the possibility to immediately find a suitable vase and give the flowers the care they crave and deserve.
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How terrible is it to leave the flowers wrapped for a while?
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Well, i just visited my own florist, and her advice is not to bother about unwrapping and cutting immediately.
​She did however stress the importance of keeping the flowers in water, so find a bucket or container to put the bouquet in water as soon as you can!

With the flowers quenching their thirst, you can leave the proper flower care for a moment when you have the time, up until even te next morning.

Finding the right vase has everything to do with shape, size, material and design. 

The vase should be tall enough, for starters, with that Goldylocks neck that keeps the stems nicely together in their arrangement while giving each flower enough space to breathe. 

When push comes to shove, it's almost always that one vase from the most remote corner of the kitchen cabinet above the refrigerator.

First off: Freshly cut flowers in general like their water lukewarm, it makes it easier for them to absorb the moisture.

​That said: bulb flowers, like tulips and daffodils, prefer fresh cold water. 
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Secondly: Since flowers only take in water through the ends of their stem, it makes sense not to fill up the vase too much to reduce the possibility of bacterial growth from submerged rotting leaves.

There's a debate going on about using filtered water, but that might depend on the quality of your tap water to start with.
Here in the Netherlands, the water supply system is pretty good, so i can't be bothered.

Pro tip:
Tiny air bubbles can clogg flowers' stems and create air-embolism, so when filling the vase, wait for the bubbles in the water to dissipate before the next step.

This is where the internet is going crazy.

There are so many different tales about what you should and shouldn't add to the water to keep your flowers fresh and healthy.

When cutting, choose garden shears or a sharp knife with a straight edge.
Avoid using your trusty blunt kitchen scissors, you might accidentally squash the stem. ​

There are a two reasons to cut at a 45 degree angle: You'll decrease the chance of crushing the stems plus you'll increase the surface area for water-absorbtion.​

If you prefer a tightly styled bouquet like your florist makes, the best tip i can give you is to take your vase to the shop and have them set it up for you. A good florist will happily oblige.​

Want to keep that florist style but have to fend for yourself? Whatever you do, don't leave on the wrapping and elastic band.
If you want to do justice to the arrangement, you have to start out with getting a vase with the right neck and overall shape. 

Once you've found your Goldilocks vessel, and cleaned it, carefully unwrap the bouquet, prune and cut the flowers and place them one by one.
​It might take a bit of practice and a lot of rearranging, but you'll get the hang of it. Eventually.

Want an easy hack? Get our Flower Constellations: durable brass disks with a cut-out pattern based on the star signs, to randomly space your flowers.

Before i forget: If you're arranging your own wildflower bouquet, keep in mind daffodils and hyacinths don't play nice with others: the slimy substance they secrete from their stems will make the other flowers wilt. 

In a still life painting flowers are often next to a bowl of fruit or placed in bright sunlight. 
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Eventhough that might be pretty composition-wise, if you want to keep your flowers fresh for longer, bright sunlight and ripening fruits should be avoided.

In fact, you want to keep your flowers away from any source of heat. The warmth will speed up the flowers' ageing process (which we don't want).

That said: flowers are also annoyed by drafts, as it accelerates water loss and reduces lifespan.

​Then the thing with fruit: ripening fruits release ethylene gas, which makes the flowers ripen and wilt quicker.

Bottom line: pretty much all florists advice to keep your arrangement in a level cool environment with no fruit around. 

A pro tip is to store flowers in a fridge overnight. However this does come with a warning: if the fridge is or ever was used for fruit-storage, the (left-over) ethylene gasses will still make your flowers wilt. 

In the past i have been adviced to change the water daily, every other day, or to just leave it be.

Judging by all the pro-tips i came across while researching for this post, changing the water every once-in-a-while seems wise, best before it starts to look murky.
Also, when you do, clean the vase, trim the stems and add a little flower food.

If you don't have a lot of time on your hands, at least keep checking the water level daily and top up when neccessary. (Flowers can drain a vase more rapidly than you might think.)

Less invasive, yet as important, is to keep an eye on your bouquet and remove all wilting flowers,  brown leaves and drooping petals.

​​Once a flower starts wilting, it gives off ethylene gass, which we know by now is not great for the life-span of the rest of the bouquet.

Also, when you get rid off the wilting bits, don't leave them near your arrangement. Because, you know, ethylene gas. Throw them out in a proper container and/or in another room.

So, there it is, the complete rookie guide to flower care. 
Feel free to add your own flowery wisdom if you like and let's all enjoy our flowers for as long as possible.

Below you'll find an extensive list of sources with links to all original articles.
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​If you're not exhausted from reading this post, go check them out, they're all highly informative.

It's not just flowers, we weren't that great with plants either, that's why we created this post about plantcare for the botanically challenged a while ago. 
Worth checking out if you can use a little help in that department.

Also, we designed a device to water your plants: Waterworks. Made it a lot easier for us to keep our greenery green and happy.

When it comes to beautiful cities in the Netherlands, Haarlem is one of the contenders for the top position. 
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​And in one of Haarlems' golden little backstreets you can find My Deer Art Shop: a stylish store that's all about interior design, limited edition art prints and lush greenery.
​
Owner Maaike Koster has long been an interior designer as well as illustrator and created a perfect inspirational space full of independent brands both from the Netherlands as the rest of the world. 

After personally delivering the first batch of Waterworks-sets to the shop in Haarlem, we're very happy to be able to add My Deer Art Shop to our House of Thol store locator.

Go check that out: