If you’ve ever spent your morning commute daydreaming about starting afresh with your career, this feature is for you. Each Monday, we speak to someone from a different profession to discover what it’s really like. Today we speak to florist and founder of Snapdragon Edinburgh, Catherine Traynor…
No one is a florist to become rich, that’s for sure… Salaries range from around £27,000 for an inexperienced or trainee florist to around £40,000 for an experienced senior florist managing a shop, with various stages in between depending on skills and experience.
There are some college courses but… most florists train on the job, learning from colleagues with perhaps some private floristry courses undertaken along the way. We always find creative people with a passion for flowers make the best florists.
Generally, if a flower is fully open, it won’t last long… but there’s no way of knowing for sure how long they will last. There are so many varieties with different vase lives. There are exceptions, of course, to this rule of thumb with hardy varieties such as chrysanthemum.
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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 replace the water every two to three days or so, re-cutting the stems and removing any stems that are past their best. Also, place the flowers out of direct sunlight and away from radiators; the cooler the spot, the better.
We no longer advocate flower food… our experiments over the years show no improvement in vase life – the steps above are much more important.
To cut the stems, you should use… sharp florist scissors or a sharp knife. Anything that avoids crushing them.
To keep our flowers fresh, we make sure… our shop is always cool even in summer, and we have deliveries from our wholesalers every couple of days, so flowers are not in our shop for long. So plenty of fresh cool water and a cool place are key.
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