A Day In A Flower Shop

A Day In A Flower Shop

By
CTBaird

Owning and working in a flower shop is, as everyone thinks, a lovely job.

There are times when it is a ‘yukky’ job too. More on that later.

When you open your shop in the early morning, there is always a wonderful smell, even though the flowers don’t have the strong perfume they once had, all together they smell wonderful.

I think the perfume permeates all around. Even when there aren’t many flowers out in the shop.

The previous afternoon’s flower delivery is put in the cool room overnight with the arrangements to be sent out on the first run delivery.

There is always plenty to do. The day starts early and the flowers purchased that morning are to be put away, the day’s orders sorted out and put in order of delivery times. The courier to be notified of what deliveries they will be needed for.

Then the inspiration takes over. The colors of the flowers will often inspire certain styles of arrangements.

What makes the florist’s job so interesting is, flowers are never the same, the color combinations, the textures, the filler flowers, the greenery, leaves, grasses, twigs. Bamboo, moss, pebbles, containers, these all add to what will inspire and delight the florist to what can be created.

When the orders are looked into, the type of person they are going to will always be taken into account.

A romantic will have the pretty pastels, delicate filler flowers and soft greenery.

A male will have an arrangement made up in maybe a timber box, strong colors, bold flowers, wonderful leaves and grasses.

There maybe a wedding to be prepared. Flowers for a wedding need special attention. They have to be fed and watered and opened, all so they will be perfect for the bride on her big day.

Sometimes wedding flowers arrive at the flower shop five days before they have to be assembled. The florist will tend to them daily to make sure they are just right.

The phone calls start coming in with orders for that day and later days. The customers walk in to the shop and like to see arrangements and bouquet already made.

Maybe they want to pick up something quickly and go, or maybe they want to see what styles are available to collect or send later.

Whatever they want or need, the florist will give them the utmost attention and make sure they are confident that what they order will be right flowers for the right occasion.

All this is the lovely pretty and pleasant part of working in the flower shop.

The not so nice side of things, the “yukky” side comes at the end of the day.

Flowers and the containers used to keep them in, have to be kept clean.

So at the end of the day comes the bucket cleaning time.
Mostly all buckets of flowers and greenery have the water changed every day. The flowers and greenery are put into clean containers with clean water, and then the used buckets are cleaned. There are also the buckets from the shop front, when flowers have been purchased off the display.

These are scrubbed with a brush or scourer, rinsed with a mild solution of bleach and water and rinsed again, ready for the next day.

Occasionally a greenery bucket can get missed and it maybe two days before it gets changes, now that is one not nice bucket, greenery left a day can get very smelly, not the nicest of smells.

The afternoon flower order comes in and the flowers are cut and watered and made ready for the early morning orders. The very early orders are prepared, special flowers for the next day’s orders are taken note of for the early morning trip to the markets and it is time to close up and go home.

The fringe benefit, I’ll call it that, for want of a better name, is the wonderful people you get to know, and each and every day there is at least one of these special people who will come into the shop, mostly to say Hi and have a chat.

Yes working in a flower shop is a specially wonderful way to earn a living.



CTBaird has owned and operated flower shops for 15 years, and is author of
How To Buy Flowers