Flower artist Nicolai Bergmann on blooms’ healing power

The Hiroshima Prefecture city of Fukuyama suffered the destruction of 80% of its urban area during the air raids of World War II. As part of the recovery effort, citizens banded together to plant some 1,000 rose bushes in Minami Park in the Gomoncho district. Their hope was to “enrich the devastated city and restore the spirit of the people.” Eight decades later, the park is now Rose Park, while Fukuyama is known as the “City of Roses” and boasts more than 1 million rose plants, mainly in the park but also throughout the city.

In May, Fukuyama will play host to the 20th World Rose Convention. The event is held every three years by the World Federation of Rose Societies, bringing together societies from 40 countries and regions. The convention draws 600 to 700 researchers, growers, aficionados, artists and others from around the world. It serves as a forum for exchanging information and discussing solutions to various rose-related issues, including the advancement and dissemination of knowledge and the promotion of research.

Nicolai Bergmann, a floral artist from Denmark, is the official ambassador for the event. He has had a deep relationship with Fukuyama since 2017, when he was named the City of Roses PR ambassador. On Feb. 7, 100 days before the convention’s kickoff, a commemorative event featuring a rose installation and live performances was held at Sun Station Terrace Fukuyama, a commercial facility next to Fukuyama Station. The event was a lively prelude to the convention.

“As a flower artist, I am delighted to be able to promote Fukuyama, the City of Roses, through my work and name. In 2018, Fukuyama produced a new variety of rose named the Nicolai Bergmann Fukuyama Rose, which is now blooming in front of Fukuyama Station. It is such an honor to have a rose named after me,” he said in fluent Japanese, delighted to share his enthusiasm for the upcoming convention.

Bergmann first visited Japan in 1996 after completing his vocational training as a florist in Denmark. He was so fascinated by the country that he returned in 1998 to launch his career here. He made his name with his “flower boxes,” arrangements of flowers carefully laid out inside boxes, which he first developed in 2000. At the time, a fashion brand asked him to distribute fresh flowers at a party, but it was impractical to stack cut flowers at the venue. After some trial and error, he came up with the revolutionary idea of a black gift box that you could open to find an arrangement of flowers. The idea quickly became a worldwide hit, and as it now marks its 25th anniversary, it has become a standard floral gift around the world.

“It is wonderful that our standard-bearer product has remained popular for 25 years. But we don’t just continue to make the same thing because it is popular — we always try to innovate and create new things,” he said. “For the 25th anniversary, we announced a collaboration with the Japanese fashion brand Facetasm. We will also be presenting a collaboration with a Danish design company, using a wooden box made in the image of origami. I wanted to express the fusion of Japanese and Western styles in the box. We also plan to release collaborative boxes with long-standing characters from popular culture. And please look out for our exhibitions commemorating the 25th anniversary of the flower box that will be held around Japan and in Denmark.”

In April 2022, the Nicolai Bergmann Hakone Gardens opened in the Gora area of Hakone. The vast gardens, completed after more than eight years of planning, are not just a flower garden, but a place where people can connect with nature and experience the seasons with their entire bodies. Walkways, stairways, a glass pavilion and a cafe were built into virgin forest. The garden, with the preservation of nature at its core, features a unique ecosystem of local plants, flowers, animals and birds. It also boasts one-of-a-kind objects made by Bergmann using local stones, branches and leaves.

Bergmann says that having flowers in our daily lives has a positive effect on the spirit because they give people a sense of the seasons and a feeling of being in harmony with nature.

He advises that people can start by incorporating just a single flower into their lives.

“The goal should be to enjoy the flowers themselves, not how they are arranged. A simple start is fine. Even watering flowers every day and watching them transform serves as a kind of meditation. Just by having flowers, a positive change occurs in your psyche that you may not even be aware of. Living with flowers enriches lives,” he said.

For Bergmann, flowers are an important tool for expressing his creativity as an artist. With their power to heal people and invigorate the spirit, he can’t imagine life without flowers. Always aiming to surpass his previous efforts for creativity and scale, each year he embarks on new collaborations while continuing to promote the splendor and the power of flowers. With his uncanny green thumb, acute sensibility and unmatched drive, his growing world of flowers will continue to warrant close attention.

第二次世界大戦により市街地の８割が焼失した広島県福山市。“荒廃した街に潤いを与え人々の心に潤いを取り戻す”ことを目的に、市民の手で薔薇の苗木約1000本を植えたのが“ばらのまち福山”の始まりだ。現在ではばら公園を中心に市内に100万本あまりの薔薇が植えられている。

2025年5月にはその福山市で『第20回世界バラ会議福山大会』が開催される。この会議は、世界40の国・地域のバラ会が加盟する世界バラ連合が3年ごとに開催する薔薇の世界大会。今回の大会のアンバサダーを務めるのが、デンマーク出身のフラワーアーティスト、ニコライ・バーグマンだ。

彼は2016年に《ばらのまち福山PR大使》に就任して以来、福山市と深い関わりを持ち続けてきた。フラワーアーティストとして、自分の仕事と名前を通じて“ばらのまち福山”を盛り上げていくことができるのはとても嬉しいことだと語る。彼の名前を一躍有名にした「フラワーボックス」も今年で25周年を迎え、様々なコラボレーションも進行中だ。ニコライ・バーグマンへの注目度は益々、高まっている。

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