Is it time to show the difference?
Talking about all the Tom, Dick and Harry’s who come out of the woodwork at peaks* I wonder if florists should be calling themselves something else.
A thought prompted by an old story I found about Rosemary Livingston, who used to do the designs for the likes of Elton John and Madonna back in the day.
Because as Anna Tyzack wrote back in 2013 when she interviewed Rosemary for The Telegraph, “Don’t, whatever you do, call Rosemary Livingstone a florist. I make this mistake when I arrive at her shop in central London to learn how to make a Christmas table decoration. "I don't sell flowers from a corner shop," she says, slightly frostily. "I'm a floral designer; it's a step up."
Now that’s a bit rude to corner shop owners and I doubt many of us would be quite so publicly sniffy but given the great Constance Spry felt exactly the same and believed calling herself a florist demeaned what she did because her skill base was far superior and as such deserve a greater title, I have to say, in an increasingly competitive market the term florist is perhaps now even more underwhelming.
Everyone and anyone can call themselves a florist; it’s a dictionary definition for anyone selling flowers, heck even Aron Gelbard, the founder of multi-million-pound operator Bloom & Wild calls himself a florist on his Company House directors’ entry and I doubt he hardly touches a flower these days!
Personally, I’m not sure about Floral Designer whilst Floral Artist and Bespoke Florist leave me a bit cold. Artisan is overused methinks and flower arranger is more associated with someone who does it as a hobby - although before anyone shouts there are many, many very gifted flower arrangers!
You certainly can’t call yourself a Master Florist unless you’ve taken the exams – be it the Dutch or British version – you can’t be a Good Florist unless you’ve passed their accreditation process and professional florist is – to me – a bit of a nonsense as one would hope anybody doing it as a career is professional.
But is there a job title that could raise the bar and could it be done without some formal recognition. My personal fave so far is floriculturist. It's not quite right as technically applies to those who grow flowers and sell but, given most people don't carry a dictionary, just like horticulturist it carries some gravitas without sounding too up itself and covers the plant side as well.
Maybe I need to do a poll or run a 'find a name' competition but one way or another I really do think we need to find a way of showing that not all florists are the same.
What do you think?
Caroline Marshall-Foster
Editor
