Behind The Bouquets Blog

As well as running my business Behind Every Bouquet I wanted to write a blog giving you an insight into the world of floristry/flower farming and what goes on behind closed doors.

If you have read 'our story' you will already know a little bit about me...

I have said I love flowers and plants. And it’s a good job really, considering I spend most of my time surrounded by them. Some of my favourite flowers are: Hydrangeas, Ranunculus, Hyacinths, Tulips, Dahlias, Sweet Peas, Roses and Peonies - it's impossible when you are a florist to have just 1 favourite.

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I am a wife and a mum to three beautiful boys. When I was younger I never knew what I wanted to do for a living. I wanted to grow up, get married, buy a house and have children. So any job that paid the bills would do. I have worked since being 14 years old, in various jobs: as a waitress/chef in a local cafe, as a costs draftsperson in a law firm, as a customer service assistant at Sainsburys supermarket and in a senior role at a bank. When my boys came along, I was very lucky and managed to take some time off work to enjoy being a mum. When I decided I was going to go back to work, it had to be to a job that I was passionate about because leaving my babies wasn’t going to be easy.  I’d always enjoyed gardening as a hobby so I figured that was a good place to start. I took on a little job at our local garden centre working a couple of days a week and I used to love it. I got to expand my knowledge on plants. I could cycle to work and it was good.

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At the time I had a little veg patch in my mum’s garden where we used to grow: courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes, sweetcorn, carrots, parsnips, peas and potatoes (to name a few). It was lovely, homegrown veg is some of the most delicious you can ever eat and I wholeheartedly recommend giving growing your own a go if you haven’t before! I can’t remember exactly why we decided to swap from veg to flowers. I think it was because we were only growing small scale and although yes the veg was super tasty. You can’t feed a big family with a few small carrots or a few pea pods. So we decided to switch. We sowed Sweet Peas, Scabiosa, Cornflowers, Cosmos, Sunflowers, Dahlias, Daffodils, Hyacinths and Tulips to name a few. And that was the start of something. 

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When it came to cutting the flowers and making arrangements, I soon found out that  creating beautiful bouquets like you see on Facebook/Instagram isn't easy. There's actually an awful lot of skill involved. Now I’m not the kind of person who gives up easily 

and the perfectionist in me wanted to learn how to do it properly so I said goodbye to my job at the garden centre and decided to go back to school. I went to study floristry at Askham Bryan College and I fell in love with it, I made some great friends and graduated with distinction. I have worked in a few different flower shops since to gain experience and seen/learnt different techniques. 

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I would describe my style as wild, quite naturalistic and pretty. I love typical English cottage garden flowers. I prefer homegrown to wholesale (where-ever possible) and seasonal flowers and foliage. Alongside setting up/running Behind Every Bouquet, I am currently investing my time and money into creating a cut flower farm. I have access to a good sized plot of land and have already sown and planted out thousands of seeds. It’s both scary and super exciting at the same time. It is often hard work and long hours, but sometimes you have to take risks to get a reward. I want to be a role model to my boys, to show them that if you are passionate about something and work hard at it, you can make your dreams a reality. My goal is to eventually be fully self sufficient. To grow what I need to make my bouquets, meaning my flowers won't be flown from half way around the world. Instead they will be handpicked at home.

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As a florist I have lots of things to do. Our job doesn’t just involve working with beautiful blooms. There’s a lot more to it and understanding this will hopefully help you understand my pricing as there is a lot of work which takes place behind the scenes. As I run my business alone, I am responsible for: answering the phone, responding to any emails, posting updates on social media, managing my website, ordering/collecting stock, conditioning my flowers, watering my plants, pricing items, making up the boxes and bows, cutting the cellophane and brown paper to size, washing buckets, making bouquets/arrangements and often actually delivering the flowers too. That's before I get onto the flower farming side of things... Where I am responsible for: sowing the seeds, planting the seeds, pinching out, deadheading, watering, weeding, feeding, picking and preparing the stock for sale. So it's probably no surprise that I never stop! Especially if you remember that I also have 3 children and house to look after.

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I run my floristry business slightly different to most. My opening hours are listed as 9-5 Monday-Friday and 9-2 on Saturdays. But these are flexible as I work around my family or try to make my family fit around work. Generally I do a lot longer hours. At the moment my youngest, Henry, isn't in school so I have to juggle childcare or he ends up helping me out behind the scenes. He loves sniffing the flowers and pretending to sneeze. You may have also seen him out on deliveries with me. Being there for my children is super important to me and having my own business enables me to be there to see things that in another role I would miss and it means the absolute world to me and to my boys. The down side to working flexibly and because there is only one of me at the end of the day, is that I may not always be available immediately. I will however always aim to get back to you if you leave me a message, email or voicemail and my website is always waiting to take your orders.

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I have a little stall on Station Road, in Ryhill where I currently sell my flowers from. I try to keep it stocked, as much as possible. If you ever see it empty please don't assume I've stopped working. It might just be that I haven't got any fresh flowers at that moment in time (which can happen when I've sold out, if I decide it's too hot/cold/rainy/windy - the weather is always against us florists - or if I have a quiet day and have decided not to buy any from the wholesalers to help with my business budget). Should you want flowers please still knock on the door or drop me message. I will always do my best to help. I can create fresh flowers bouquets for the following day or if in season can head down to my field and pick flowers the very same day - you can't get fresher than that and that should mean they last you a lot longer at home too!

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Next year I am hoping to be able to offer the opportunity to pick your own flowers direct on my driveway. It's not something I have ever done before but I am going to give it a go so please come visit in Spring when hopefully we should have Tulips/Daffodils/Hyacinths etc coming into bloom.

PRICING

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I try to keep my pricing as competitive as possible and try my best to have products available at different price points to suit everyone's personal budgets. That said, unfortunately I can't run a successful business by giving my products away and I hope you can understand that. I charge what I have to ensure, where possible, I am covering my costs. The wholesale flowers I buy are expensive (no matter which wholesalers I buy from). This is because you are covering the costs of the growers, the transportation and handling of the flowers. The flowers are more expensive than supermarket flowers but this is because they are better quality. Blooms are larger, stem lengths are longer etc. When placed side by side you can visibly see the difference and as flowers are often a luxury in life, I use only the highest quality products available to ensure when you do buy flowers from Behind Every Bouquet that you are not disappointed.

When you buy my flowers you are ensuring that all the hard work and effort which I put into them isn't for nothing. You are helping my business grow and for that I am very thankful! 

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DELIVERY

In terms of receiving your flowers you can choose to either COLLECT THEM FOR FREE from my address. If you do live local and are able, I always appreciate my customers collecting their orders as it means I can continue to work through anymore orders that I may have.

Or you can choose to have them delivered for a small fee. I have tried my best to keep costs as low as possible. Whilst also ensuring that I receive a contribution towards my vehicle costs and my time for delivering your flowers. I only charge for half the journey i.e to your door. The return journey cost comes out of my business budget. The price of delivery is based on your location. So if you live 2 miles or under from my address the fee is £1.80. If you live 5 miles and under it's £4.95 and 10 miles and under is £9.45. I will travel to areas outside 10 miles but at my own discretion and subject to an additional charge. I reserve the right to refuse delivery - if for example I have too many orders on. And I do check mileage when I am processing your orders so please be honest with where you live otherwise I will deduct the outstanding amount from your floral budget. I would rather not have to do that but sadly it does happen.

Delivery will be made as soon as possible. Please be patient, especially in busy periods. As stated there is only one of me. I will always try and drop you a text to let you know when I aiming to deliver your flowers. If you won't be in if you could let me know of a safe place to leave your flowers (i.e with a neighbour, in a shed...) that would be great. As it then means I avoid having to make double journeys which costs my business. In the event I do leave your flowers, I will leave a card message to advise you where they are and take a photograph as proof of the delivery. If I have attempted to delivery your flowers and your not in, I reserve the right to return to my address with the flowers and will contact you to arrange collection if I can't redeliver.