I think I was always destined to be a florist. My first floral memory is from when I was around 8 years old picking handfuls of petals from my mum’s rose garden (sorry mum!) and mixing them with water to create a perfume – can you imagine how that looked or smelt?! I would spend masses of time stirring the petals to get the water nicely scented, decant into small glass bottles and sell them from a little table I set up in our front garden hoping to get customers from the pavement beyond (it was a popular dog walking route – I had my fingers crossed!).
I started as a Saturday girl in a local florist in Ryde when I was 13 years old. Literally starting at the bottom – washing out dirty buckets and vases, watering and repotting plants and making bows – so many bows! All this before I was even allowed to touch a flower and get arranging. I didn’t mind though, I think it’s important to learn your craft from the bottom up. I really loved going to work on a Saturday with such a great group of people and learning new skills.
Next up, I moved to a florist in Southsea. I would commute over on the boat five days a week and on the sixth day I attended Highbury College. The college provided a fantastic opportunity to study traditional floristry skills so important for any budding florist. Loaded up with my armfuls of …
