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Daniël Ost

Sint-Niklaas, Belgium, 1955

Daniël Ost is, without any doubt, one of the fathers of contemporary floral art. He lives and works in the same city he was born in, Sint-Niklaas, and he says that he has had a passion for flowers his whole life. He therefore soon realised he wanted to become a maestro of flowers. His designs, which are always innovative and sophisticated, have formed part of events for royal families or for international organisations such as Unicef. His ability to bring together Eastern and Western taste and philosophy is stunning. It was not by chance that he opened an academy in Japan in 2016, his second home. Currently he shares work with his daughter Nele Ost, making sure the talent and love for flowers stays in the family. When he was only 3 years old, he fell down a pit of fertiliser trying to pick a rose. He has said many times that when they pulled him out, unconscious, he was still holding tightly onto the flower with all his might. Nowadays, he still has a tight hold on flowers.

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Eugenio Domínguez

Sevilla, Spain, 1946

A Doctor in Science, he is currently professor of Botany at the Universidad de Córdoba. During his academic career, he has been the director of the Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación and Dean of the Universidad de Córdoba. He is an Honorary Doctor of the National Aviation University of Kiev (Ukraine), la Universidad de Concepción (Chile) and the Agronomy and Veterinary University of Cluj Napoca (Romania). Furthermore, in 2007 he was awarded the Gold Medal by the Universidad de Córdoba (Spain). Of the many publications he has written as a result of his studies, the most noteworthy include a total of 26 books and 143 papers in scientific magazines, the book Flora silvestre de Córdoba, which he wrote together with Jesús M. Muñoz Álvarez and Emilio Ruiz de Clavijo.

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Jacqueline Boerma

Heerlen, The Netherlands, 1964

She is the fourth generation of a Dutch family with a long tradition in the world of flowers. She sees flowers and floral design as an essential part of her life and, in her own words, “she cannot imagine a life without flowers”. Since 2013, she has been the CEO of the Boerma Instituut, an institution run by her family where she started working in 1981. Besides teaching at this institute, she takes part in workshops all around the world and juries for different floral design festivals.

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Pieter Toebaert

Affligem, Belgium, 1968

Professional botanist and photographer, and art director for floral festivals as prestigious as the Ghent Floralies (Gant) or Flowertime (Brussels) . A passion for flowers is in his blood because he started learning about this amazing world, developing, in his own words, a special taste for aesthetics in his family. He feels passionate about beauty and perfection, and he looks for inspiration in several fields in order to translate his knowledge to flowers.

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Robin Lane Fox

London, UK, 1946

He is a world-known classicist bringing together two passions: the classic world and flowers. He is an undeniable reference point in Classics at Oxford University, where he works as reader of Ancient History. His major publications include Alexander the Great (the bestselling biography of this historical figure) and The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian (reference book for anybody interested in Antiquity). His huge erudition does not affect his brilliant narrative ability. Besides, Lane Fox has been a weekly columnist about gardening of the Financial Times since 1970, Garden Master of the New College gardens (Oxford) and several times gold medal-winner at the Chelsea Flower Show. The curriculum of this atypical and exciting figure includes being the historical consultant for Alexander, Oliver Stone’s film, where he also appears as an extra in the battle of Gaugamela.