Written by
Yvonne Marquenie
Anyone who works with flowers on a daily basis sees it happen, even when it is never spoken out loud: flowers make people happier. You often notice it in small ways. Someone enters with a practical purpose — something for the table, something for someone else — but the moment a bouquet is picked up, the atmosphere subtly shifts. As if flowers awaken something that doesn’t need to be put into words. Neuroscientific research commissioned by Plants & Flowers Foundation Holland helps explain why.
At a subconscious level, people in the Netherlands mainly associate flowers with two things: happiness and home. In many European countries, happiness clearly comes first, but in the Netherlands the feeling of home even outweighs it. Flowers here are not just decoration; they are part of how a space feels — warm, personal, and liveable. They help turn a house into “your” home, without people consciously articulating it that way.
There is also one occasion for giving flowers that consistently stands out: cheering someone up. This is when consumers experience the wellbeing effects of flowers most strongly. In the Netherlands, flowers function above all as a kind gesture — a way to show care or support. Not through grand words, but through small signals that carry real meaning.
On major commercial occasions such as Mother’s Day, flowers are purchased in large numbers, but the deeper emotional impact is less pronounced. The true magic of flowers emerges in unplanned moments: when someone thinks, “I want to do something kind,” or “this will make home feel a little nicer.”
For florists, this research highlights the importance of continuing to make the emotional value of flowers visible. Not by speaking louder, but by letting feeling take the lead — in presentation, in-store communication and online presence. Think of themes around cheering someone up, coming home, and small gestures of care. These are exactly the motivations that resonate most strongly with people in the Netherlands. When those feelings are already present in your shop, there is hardly any need to explain them.
Flowers don’t just make our lives more beautiful. They make them gentler. And sometimes, that is exactly the kind of wellbeing someone needs.