If you’ve ever spent your morning commute dreaming of starting your career afresh, this feature is for you. Every Monday we speak to someone from a different profession to find out what it’s really like. Today we speak to florist and founder of Snapdragon Edinburgh, Catherine Traynor…
No one becomes a florist to become rich, that’s for sure… Salaries range from around £27,000 for an inexperienced or apprentice florist to around £40,000 for an experienced senior florist managing a shop, with various steps in between depending on skills and experience.
There are some college courses but… Most florists receive on-the-job training, and possibly even take some private floristry courses from their coworkers. We always find that creative people with a passion for flowers make the best florists.
Generally, if a flower is in full bloom, it will not last long… But there’s no way to know for sure how long they’ll last. There are lots of varieties with different vase lives. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule in the case of hardy varieties like chrysanthemums.
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The best way to make flowers last longer is… To cut the stems diagonally, place in cool, fresh water, top up the water daily and change the water every two to three days, re-cut the stems and remove any that are past their prime. Also, keep the flowers out of direct sunlight and away from radiators; The cooler the place, the better.
We no longer advocate flower food… Our experiments over the years show no improvement in vase life – the above steps are far more important.
To cut the stems you should use… Sharp florist scissors or a sharp knife. Anything that keeps them from getting crushed.
To keep your flowers fresh, we ensure… Our shop is always cool, even in summer, and we have deliveries from our wholesalers every two days, so the flowers don’t take long to arrive at our shop. So plenty of fresh cool water and a cool place are important.
The biggest problem people face while arranging their flowers is… Placing them in a vase that is too small and too small to support them. If the florist has arranged them, choose a vase about two-thirds the height of the bouquet, and loosen the string when placing in the vase to maintain an organized shape but still have a natural flow.
When you make flower arrangements yourself, choose an appropriately sized vase for the type of flowers as described above, and focusing on a single variety of flowers always works, and we love foliage. Always use this as it helps support the flowers and gives the arrangement a natural, garden-like look.
Florists keep prices in mind… The general markup on wholesale in the industry for cut flowers, as well as in retail and the fact that flower is a raw material that requires conditioning and preparation. We don’t just open a bulk wrap and put it on the shelf. When arranging bouquets, table arrangements, floral arches etc. we also add a design fee element to the cost of flowers, and the fee depends on the complexity and time involved in creating a particular design.
I would also like to point out that the supermarkets use flowers as a loss leader, and sell at a level that is not much more than what they paid for them, which, because of their purchasing power, is much less than what a small business would pay.
Flowers in the supermarket… Often a bit uninspired and ordinary.
Costs increase during busy times like Valentine’s and Mother’s Day… And the reason for this is simply supply and demand, and the pressure to produce large quantities of perishable stock by a specific date.
My favorite wedding flower trend is… A naturalistic, romantic, garden style of work. We dislike dyed flowers and flowers that have been manipulated into shapes and designs that are strange and unnatural.
Weather affects farmers… This is an ongoing problem that can cause various types of shortages and drive up prices. Brexit added layers of bureaucracy, meaning increased costs and customs delays, but those increased costs are now falling and prices have been fairly stable over the past year or two.
Read more from this series:
Marine biologist on what you can do to save the planet
‘I can lend £100k an hour’: the life of a moneylender
‘I’m a granny – this is the misconception society has about children’
‘I’m a window cleaner – that’s what bothers us’
Photo: iStock
Our busiest time of the year is… The entire month of December as well as Valentine’s and Mother’s Day. But we are busy with weddings all year round, especially from May to October, Edinburgh is a wedding destination.
For Valentine’s Day, men usually buy flowers and they choose… Red roses or bouquets that include red roses, but pink bouquets are also always popular.
No, increasing prices at times like Valentine’s is not for profiteering… Within a very limited time frame, the enormous pressure on supply combined with far greater demand than usual means that prices rise to ensure that every business in the supply chain can deliver.
The most expensive bouquet I ever made was… A mixed rose bouquet costs around £400, but on an everyday basis our most expensive item is a large vase at £150.
There’s really no request that we’re afraid of, but… For weddings, if we’re shown an image of a bouquet that’s very different from our work style, even though our style is evident on our website and Instagram, our hearts sink a little.
We give flowers for free… We support various charity fundraisers through flowers throughout the year. Sometimes if we have extra stock we donate flowers to local nursing homes and nurseries, but the way we buy now, that doesn’t happen often these days.
One thing I would like customers to know is that… It’s a physically demanding job that most people don’t realize. We carry heavy buckets of flowers here and there and on our feet all day long. It is often cold, and tensions can be high at times when preparing for big weddings, for example.
The thing I hate about my job is… Cold.
Florist and founder of Snapdragon Edinburgh, Catherine Traynor, arranging flowers
There’s something that makes me laugh when someone comes looking for flowers for their partner… Last minute urgency for something very specific, which we probably don’t have – but we can always suggest something lovely to suit the occasion.
We always work according to season, which keeps costs reasonable… But flowers are a luxury that is never cheap to buy. For example, a bride may like a specific garden rose that has an amazing price of £10 per stem, but we can always suggest and buy another variety that is equally beautiful but half the price.
A few stems look just as beautiful in a vase on your desk or mantle… And lift the spirits as a great vase of flowers does. The small affordable posies and flower wraps we sell out of our shop day after day are so popular for this very reason.
