Do you adore flowers and have been distracting yourself day dreaming about working with them quietly for a while? Perhaps you are contemplating starting a new career in floristry but feeling a little overwhelemed with where to begin? Hopefully today’s Tips for starting a career in floristry will help you work through your initial firsts steps.

Before I dive in, a little background into how I got into floristry myself. Back in 2008 whilst away on a travelling trip through Central America I had an epiphany that I wanted to escpape my current role at the time, working in head office retail. To pursue a career that was more creatively hands on. Originally I enrolled to do an FDA degree in design display but fete stepped in as the course was discontinued. This left me woundering what an earth I will do instead? Reevaluating the list of other course options available I spotted it…. Floral Design and Events Management and decided to go for it! Intially thinking I would go down the event side of the course but after a couple of lessons I had fallen hook line and sinker for the flowers! After graduating with a 1st BA Hons I established Joanne Truby Floral Design in 2012 and have never looked back!

Research

Spend some time doing a bit of research before signing up to do a course. Ask yourself what type of floristry appeals to you? Working in a shop? Or Having your own wedding and event floristry business for example. Look at other floral designers whose work you admire. What is it you love about their work, what are you drawn to? This will help you decipher which type of floristry course will be best suited to you and will also inspire your own floral style which will evolve as your journey evolves.

There are so many flower courses to choose from ranging from more intensive career changer courses to shorter day classes. Which course you to choose to enrol on will depend on your budget. The longer career change courses for example will be a larger financial investment. Also your style of learning will be another indicator as to what type of course will work best for you. If you are fitting your training in around your current job. Shorter one day classes that fit around work might be a better option for you. There is no right or wrong way into floristry. It’s just a case of researching and finding out what course you think will best suit you. My one key piece of advice when doing your floristry class/course is that you learn the techniques. Everything else will come later.

Floristry kit

Key pieces of kit to buy when starting on your floral journey are;

• Floral Scissors – you can get fancier more expensive ones (something to add to your Birthday or Christmas list) but when you are starting out and learning I think the standard floral scissors are ideal and really robust too!
• Pot Tape – this is used to secure your floral mechanics like tapping your chicken wire to your container for example.
• Floristry Fix – to secure your metal pin frog to your container is one of it’s uses.
• Floral Knife – This is used to remove thorns from rose stems when conditioning your flowers. I personally prefer using a knife to a rose stripper. I find they can sometimes end up bending and breaking the stems.
• Pin Frog – These come in a wide range of sizes. However I would go with an average size one with a 1/1.5 inch size diameter.
• Chicken Wire – This will be one of your go to materials for mechanics!
• Tool Box – to store your floristry tools in that you can then add to as you buy more kit.

set your goals

Compile a list of your goals for the next year. Review them every month to see if you are on track with them. Changing career can be a daunting prospect. I always find breaking down what I need to do into smaller more manageable chunks really helpful. For each of your goals write down the steps of how you are going to achieve that particular goal.

Create a vision board that ties in with your goals. It may include completing a floral class or setting up your own flower account on Instagram for example. Print it out and put it somewhere that you visit regularly, like on your fridge. Seeing it everyday will motivate you and help you to visualise the direction you are moving in to reach your goals.

Resources

If like myself you love listening to podcasts then I really recomend checking out The Girl Flower podcast. The lovely Vic and Jess interview an array of inspirational florists and growers. Sharing their floral journeys and what they have learnt along the way. Botanical Brouhaha is brilliant floral rescource which includes a blog and lots of other educational content. Flowerona, Rona who founded the blog has recently moved onto pastures new. However you can still access all the artciles on her blog. That share a wealth of knowledge about the floristry industry. New Covent Garden Market offer newbie florists and students free intoductry tours of the market. If you are keen to find your way around the market and meet the stall owners. Flowers From The Farm, an online directory. Will tell you which local growers you have in your area that you could buy British flowers from.

I hope you have found my Tips for starting a career in floristry useful. You can find out more about my courses including my Introduction to Floristry class over on the website. I offer business mentoring for florists as well, which you can find out more about here. My inbox is always open if you do want to ask me anything or have any questions about today’s post. Drop me an email. I hope you have a lovely rest of your week, I’m currently sitting with a hotwater bottle on my lap. Wishing this miserable weather would go away! Hopefully this is the last of the cold spells and Spring will soon be on the way.

Image Credits: Sundari Designs