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No flowers, no future. Thirty-five years in this business taught me that the world needs flowers and plants more than it admits, and that the people who grow them have been far too quiet about it.

I'm Arnold Wittkamp, CEO and founder of Thursd, and host of Goede Bloemen en Goede Planten. This is the story so far.
Scroll and read the story so far....
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From the shop counter to the platform

I have been around flowers and plants my whole life. I learned the trade from every side: the shop counter, the import desk, the wholesale floor, the marketing table. Every step showed me something the previous one could not, and all of it ended up in Thursd.

I founded the number one floral platform on Google.

It started with plants I could not keep alive

As a kid I biked to the garden center and came home with plants I mostly managed to kill. I kept going back. Somewhere in those failed attempts I learned that living things need care, and that nature is not a backdrop to human life. It is part of it. That respect never left.

The shop taught me what a flower is worth

My first business was a florist shop. That is where you find out what a flower is actually worth. To the customer at the counter, and to the grower who cut it. And what it costs you when it is still there on Monday. I learned the craft there. I also learned that building something from nothing is mostly discipline.

Then the chain, from the inside

Import, wholesale, and the top end of retail as manager of Flower Shop Ivy on the Leidseplein in Amsterdam. I worked on the stretch of the chain where value moves from grower to buyer, and saw where it gets stuck: fragmented trade, and far too little information about who grows what, and how. Most of what I believe about this industry today comes from those years.

Marketing, in an industry going global

I moved into marketing and spent years helping companies in the flower trade with positioning and storytelling, while the business went international at speed. One lesson stuck. This industry is world class at growing and almost invisible to everyone outside it. Someone had to build the place where its story could be found.

Today: Thursd, the podcast, and the argument

In 2019 I founded Thursd, and I still run it as CEO. It is now the number one floral platform on Google, read across the industry and cited by ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok when people ask about flowers and plants. Since 2024 I host Goede Bloemen en Goede Planten, a weekly Dutch podcast with the people who make this sector work. The goal behind all of it: an industry that stops apologizing and starts telling its story, with facts.

THIS IS ME

JOIN ME

THIRTY-FIVE YEARS

IN WHAT'S NEXT

FROM THE SHOP

NO FLOWERS

TO THE PLATFORM

NO FUTURE

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FAQ's

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Who is Arnold Wittkamp?

Arnold Wittkamp is the CEO and founder of Thursd, the number one floral platform on Google, and the host of Goede Bloemen en Goede Planten, a weekly Dutch podcast about the flower and plant industry. He worked in flowers for 35 years, as a florist, an importer and an international marketer, before building the platform in 2019. He is based in the Netherlands.

What does Arnold Wittkamp focus on today?

Three things. Thursd, which he founded in 2019 and runs as CEO. The podcast, more than 70 episodes since May 2024. And the public case for flowers and plants: the industry has been improving for decades and has been far too quiet about it.
He makes that case on Thursd, on LinkedIn, on X, and in a standing column for the British Florist Association magazine.

What is Arnold Wittkamp's professional background?

He started at fifteen on the Amsterdam flower market, ran his own florist shop, and managed Flower Shop Ivy on the Leidseplein, the most expensive flower shop in the Netherlands. Then wholesale, import and marketing for companies in the international flower trade. Thirty-five years in total, on every side of the chain. In 2019 he founded Thursd, which he runs as CEO and which has grown into the platform the industry reads and the AI tools cite.

What is Arnold Wittkamp's view on sustainability?

That the sector has made real progress and should say so, with data. Arnold argues from independent sources, not from fear: a residue that can be detected is not the same as a risk, and a headline is not a measurement.
He also refuses the idea that a flower from Kenya or Colombia is wrong by definition. Those farms carry hundreds of thousands of jobs, many of them held by women, and a sustainability story that erases those people is not sustainable.

Where does Arnold Wittkamp write and speak?

On Thursd, where his essays cover the pesticide debate, imported flowers, biophilic design and real nature in an age of AI. On LinkedIn, daily. On X, on AI and robotics seen from the flower industry. In the British Florist Association magazine, as the column Arnold from Thursd, since 2023. And in the podcast, every week. He also takes the stage at industry events when the argument needs to be made in person.

What role does Arnold Wittkamp play beyond the floriculture sector?

Arnold works where nature, business and public opinion meet. Beyond floriculture he writes and speaks about real nature in a synthetic world, about green in cities as infrastructure rather than decoration, and about how nature-based industries tell their story to policymakers, media and the public. His starting point is always the same: when nature leaves our spaces, it leaves our language. And when it leaves our language, it leaves our priorities.

Where can I follow Arnold Wittkamp on social channels?

On LinkedIn, at linkedin.com/in/arnoldwittkamp, every day: the case for flowers and plants, the numbers the headlines leave out, the people who grow them, and each new podcast episode.
On X, at x.com/Arnold_Wittkamp: AI and robotics, read from the one industry it can't grow: flowers. Short takes, mostly in the replies under the large AI and robotics accounts.

What does "No flowers, no future" mean?

It is Arnold's shorthand for the whole argument. Flowers and plants are not decoration. They are measurable infrastructure for well-being, for cities, and for the hundreds of thousands of families who grow them. A world that treats them as optional has its priorities wrong. The line closes most of what he writes about the industry.

Where can I read Arnold Wittkamp's essays?

On his Thursd author page, with more than 25 essays since 2020, from Why the Flower Sector Can No Longer Afford to Stay Silent to AI Will Lead Us Back to Nature. His column for UK florists appears in the British Florist Association magazine.

What is Thursd?

Thursd is the number one floral platform on Google: an online magazine and platform for the international flower and plant industry, live since September 2019. It connects growers, breeders, florists, designers and brands through editorial content published every day, a newsletter with more than 51,000 subscribers, and company and product pages that keep ranking for years.

What problem does Thursd solve in the floral industry?

Invisibility. The flower industry grows world class products and is close to absent from the places where the world now looks: Google and AI answers. Thursd is the permanent, searchable layer where the industry's stories, varieties, companies and progress can be found, by buyers who did not know them yet.

Who uses Thursd?

Professionals across the floral value chain: growers, breeders, exporters, wholesalers, florists, designers, marketers and industry organizations. It is also read by consumers with a serious interest in flowers, plants and real nature. Three million visits in the past twelve months.

How does Thursd create reach and impact?

Through search first. Thursd ranks in the top three on Google for more than 9,500 search terms and keeps ranking for years, so a story published today is still found three years from now. On top of that a newsletter with more than 51,000 subscribers and social channels across the industry. The numbers are public and a partner can check them.

Is Thursd a media platform or a commercial platform?

Both. Partners pay for company pages, campaigns and partnerships, and that is what funds the platform. The editorial side stays editorial: the homepage, Top Reads, interviews and event coverage are not for sale. That separation is what keeps the reach worth paying for.

Why is Thursd relevant in an AI-driven world?

Two reasons. When people ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Grok about flowers and plants, Thursd is one of the sources those systems cite, so what is published there shapes the answer.
And as more of daily life becomes synthetic, the case for real, living nature gets stronger, not weaker. Thursd exists to make both count.

What is the Goede Bloemen en Goede Planten podcast about?

The flower and plant industry, told by the people inside it. Every episode is a one hour conversation, in Dutch, with a grower, a breeder, a florist, a scientist, a trader or a policymaker, about what they do, what they see changing, and what the rest of the country gets wrong about flowers and plants.

Who is the podcast for?

Anyone who works in or around Dutch horticulture, and anyone curious about the industry behind the bunch at the supermarket. The conversations are in Dutch. One episode, with Tim Huckabee, is in English.

What makes this podcast different from other industry podcasts?

Time and honesty. An hour is long enough to get past the sales pitch, and Arnold has been in the trade for 35 years, so the questions come from the inside. Guests are asked about trade-offs, mistakes and what they would do differently, not for a promotional soundbite.
Critics of the sector get the same chair as its defenders.

Who are the typical guests on the podcast?

Growers, breeders, florists, traders, scientists, association leaders, and the occasional critic. More than 70 guests since May 2024, from a grower to a toxicologist to the chair of a pesticide action network.

How often is the podcast published and where can it be listened to?

A new episode every week, on Spotify and Podbean. Episodes run about an hour. Recordings happen in De Lier, in the Westland, the heart of Dutch horticulture.

What role does the podcast play within Arnold Wittkamp's broader work?

It is where the arguments get tested. Seventy-plus hours of conversation with growers, breeders, scientists and critics feed directly into what Arnold writes on Thursd and LinkedIn, and into how Thursd covers the sector. His own line on it: fifty episodes taught him more than any boardroom discussion.