I have been on this floristry journey for over 20 years and worked every flower job you can imagine. Today I am sharing some of the lessons I’ve learned and mistakes I made. In today’s video, I am sharing three things I did absolutely wrong that caused me a lot of frustration when I first started my flower shop. I hope you find this helpful.

I would love to help you avoid these same mistakes!

P.S.

Do you need some clarity about your journey into floristry? You can download my floristry career checklist to get you started on the right foot!

Bottom photo: Sanda Vuckovic.

Discover the ins and outs of becoming a florist! This video looks at some aspects of the floral industry you might be unfamiliar with and explores different approaches to becoming a florist. I also share steps you can take now to begin an exploration into a floral career. I hope you find it helpful! Be sure to leave a comment on the video with your questions!

If becoming a florist is something you are interested in, you are invited to grab this free download, where I walk you through 23 steps you can start today to begin working toward your new career in floristry, whether you want to add a floral product to an existing business, you have a flower farm and want to learn design, or you want to explore the career a bit more! You can download the checklist here.

2nd photo by Mina Park.

Take a look at the July issue of Homes and Gardens from the UK, and you will see a lovely feature on the dried potpourri story from Field, Flower, Vase: Arranging and Crafting with Seasonal and Wild Blooms. 

Thank you Homes and Gardens for this lovely spread! 

If you would still like to grab your copy of Field, Flower, Vase, you can buy through any of the links listed over here. Would you be so kind to leave a review if you enjoyed the book?  It means the world to authors!

xo

Chelsea

I am in full on flower meditation mode right now. Join me as I create a blowsy summer arrangement with a few blossoms from my balcony garden. When I started out as a floral designer with a proper shop, I was really concerned about having all the right ingredients and loads of blossoms to fill arrangements. Now, I see things a bit differently, particularly when I am arranging at home and particularly in the midst of a pandemic where, because I have chosen to be extra safe, I cannot get to my normal sources. How can I use what I have available to me?

What is the lowest hanging fruit? How can I do more with what I already have? I use this line of questioning for my business, my life, and my flower arrangements! It is not how I always approached things but I am proud and happy to lean on resourcefulness as one of my main values in business and in life. It’s more kind for the earth and it makes us feel abundant to focus on what we have, instead of how it could be better.  If I never slowed down and started asking questions like that, I may have never realized the beauty of a radish blossom, the joy of working on my own, or the thrill of working remotely with students around the world.

Ingredients:

coriander flowers

radish blossom

cosmos

sweet peas

pennyroyal

lupine

Sourced: balcony garden and farm box delivery (tip: order extra herbs to add to arrangements!). I use this gorgeous farm.

For more flower arranging resources, check out our sourcing, flower care, and floral career help page!

This morning was a tough one. Out of coping mechanisms, after 16 months of lockdown by personal choice, I reached for the floral scissors and my homegrown balcony blossoms. Climbing sweet peas, crown daisy grown from foraged seeds, radish blossom, cosmo greens, and pennyroyal feel like miracles in this urban environment with no vegetation in sight outside my intimate garden balcony. The violas grown from seed have been almost stagnant for 6 months. Just this week, the first blossom appeared. Proof that patience and time often bring joy, or even small bits of hope.

I don’t have many blossoms in the garden but the ones there feel like small miracles after all the trial and error, coddling, failures, and time spent trying to keep healthy plants. The overwhelming fragrance from one sweet pea blossom leaves me purely in awe.

I am always telling my newbie floral students when I do workshops for offices and corporate teams, about the healing power of flowers. However, sometimes I need to remind myself. This morning’s floral mediation left me feeling comforted, and slightly healed. Sending love to all of you out there working hard to keep yourself and others safe despite the many forces working against us. I hope you can find some beautiful blossoms. Even just one, to brighten your day. 

-Chelsea