About Floristry
You might have loved picking flowers as a child! Maybe you enjoyed pulling the petals from daisies, or placing sunny yellow dandelions underneath your chin. As an adult, maybe you love receiving flowers! A beautiful, well-designed bunch of complementary flowers can completely transform the overall effect and look of a room. And that is all down to floristry.
Floristry describes the industry of producing and selling flowers. It encompasses the way that a set of flowers is composed to be the most visually appealing. A talented florist can create floral arrangements, wreaths and flower displays.
Ready to learn all about floristry for beginners, and seek out ways to make money from your new rose-y hobby?!
Floristry Techniques for a Beginner
If you want to become a florist, you should have a passion for learning about floristry techniques. As you hone your skills, you’ll be able to create floral arrangements for just about any major event or gift!
Before we look at some floristry techniques, here’s a guide to the basic tools a beginner may need.
- Bud knives (or florist knives). Bud knives are small and easy to use. They’re an ideal tool for whenever you want to remove part of the stem and be left with just the flower head or bud. Often, florists will use this technique if they’re making a garland or some other decorative piece. They make a sharp, clean cut and don’t damage the flower head.
- Rose strippers. Roses make for a beautiful, romantic gift, but those pesky thorns can often get in the way! This is where a rose stripper (or de-thorner) comes in. A rose stripper is able to strip your rose clear of thorns without you getting any painful pricks to your finger.
- Get yourself some craft scissors and some ribbon scissors. Craft scissors are useful for when you need a small, controlled cut to get rid of stems. Ribbon scissors have longer blades and you can use them to add that extra decorative touch to your bouquet, or use them for practical things like cutting card or paper.
- Assorted shears. Use trimmers and secateurs to cut through flower stems and any extra foliage that you don’t want. It can be good to buy a variety of sizes, as you’ll definitely need some smaller shears to reach through small gaps and do some precision work.
- Wire cutters. Use wire cutters to keep your fancy floral arrangements in place. You can also use them to get create, by wrapping them around artificial stems so that you can style and shape them however you want.
- Floral foam knife. Choose a floral foam knife with a long blade to make things easier for yourself. This knife is used to cut wet and dry bricks of floral foam with a smooth and even cut.
Now that you have all of the necessary equipment, grab some safety gear like rubber gloves and let’s have a look at some floristry techniques.
- Prepare your flowers. When building your bouquet, have it at eye level. Remove all thorns and excess leaves, and cut your stems at a 45 degree angle. Use floral foam or a flower frog so you can keep the stems stabilised.
- The arrangement. Decide what shape you’d like your arrangement to be. Oval, triangle or round? Place large flowers in the centre and allow it to fan out, so small flowers are placed around the edges. Keep the arrangement symmetrical by cutting more off the stems for your outside flowers.
- Keep it interesting. Your arrangement should be eye-catching, full and interesting. If you notice any spaces that look too big, use foliage to fill them in. Depending on the purpose of your arrangement, you can use artificial decorations. Things like feathers, toy birds, beads and other materials looks great and can be modified for the occasion.
- Keep your containers clean to warn off any nasty bacteria. Flowers should stay away from sunlight, direct heat and large breezes. Change the water often and use flower food.
Why Should you Learn about Floristry?
What are the benefits of learning about floristry? You may want to launch a career as a florist or may want to dabble in flower arrangements, but here are some pros of learning about floristry.
Build unique decorations for your home
An awesome thing about floristry is that you can design exactly how it looks. Go for whichever colour patterns you love and match it perfectly to the room in your house. Add a stunning vase and appreciate your own homemade flowery art.
Help out friends and family
Offer your new skills to friends and family when they have an event. Florist arrangements are a staple piece in major life events like weddings and funerals. You can create the centre pieces and the bride’s bouquet and be an integral part of their big day. Make extra cash by charging for your service, or simply lessen the stress when your friend has so much to think about and organise for their event.
Anyone can become a florist
You don’t need an advanced degree to become a florist, but passion and experience is vital. You can study the subject at college, but often a grocery store or florist will employ people fresh out of high school as long as they show promise and interest in the role.
Relieve stress and be creative
Floristry is an ideal, relaxing creative outlet where you can experiment with unlimited flower types and arrangements. Take time out of the day to focus on being arty. If you’re taking floristry up as a career, though, be prepared for some stressful moments and deadlines to meet from time to time!
A Career in Floristry
A career in floristry won’t always pay the highest of salaries. However, you can receive a certification and if you are booked for enough events, you’ll definitely earn enough money to make a living.
As you don’t need a formal degree, you can start making money as soon as you step into a job. You’ll also receive training along the way and be able to build your skills as you earn.
If you’d rather set up your own business, instead of working for someone else, there are ways to do that too! You can set up a floristry business from your own home, and cut some business costs. There, you can take orders for birthdays, weddings and any other events and deliver your beautiful arrangements to your customers.
To take things one step further, why not set up your own florist shop?! If you have the initial capital to put down, it can be a great way to get your name out there and attract customers that might not otherwise know your business existed. Buying wholesale flowers and other equipment will cut costs, too! And then never forget to up-sell! You don’t have to limit yourself to just flowers, but can sell teddy bears and chocolates to complete a thoughtful gift.
Being able to practise floristry will bring a pop of colour and a pleasant scent into your life every day! Setting up a business will create a whole new, exciting lifestyle for you and you’ll be an important part of making big events as special as they can be. Roses, lilies or peonies… The choice is all yours!
