Have you ever dreamed of working with flowers? Do you long to be creative and know more about how to arrange flowers in the home? I remember asking myself all of these questions, nearly sixteen years ago. My journey into floristry wasn’t an obvious one. I was working in a PR company, a little frustrated of being at a desk. I had a creative background and sitting at a computer from nine to five didn’t suit me.
I remember helping set up the PR events and there I had to speak to some of Londons top florists and they turned our clients wishes into a beautiful reality. I was in love with floristry from that moment. My mum bought me a book by Paula Pryke and Jane Packer and I decided to quit my job and start on my floristry journey.
My training began at Plumpton college, where I did a two year diploma, but it wasn’t until I headed to London and enrolled in a career courses at Jane Packer School of Flowers and later at McQueens, that my eyes were truly opened to the type of floristry I wanted to do and eventually teach others.
I ran a wedding and events business for eight years before taking a break to have my second son and then my daughter.
Once my daughter was six months old I dreamed of working with flowers once more. I had taken a training course with Tulpina Design and I knew I wanted to teach artistic designs, natural movement displays and up to date floristry,
I wanted to open a floristry school in Sussex that offered career courses, bespoke workshops, ongoing training to professional florists and fun, informal classes for flower enthusiasts. A Sussex flower school that wasn’t just about traditional methods, but encouraged students to break the rules and push themselves artistically. I had a desire to create a flower school that taught students to look at flowers and foliage and create natural inspired designs. From here Flourish Sussex Flower School was created.
When I was creating The Foundation for Beginners I wanted to create a bespoke course that covers everything I would have wanted to know when I was training at my local college. The course is very practical. With students being shown how to create some of the most popular designs in floristry. After these step by step demonstrations, students then get to to create: hand tied bouquet, bridal posy, free flowing bouquet, buttonholes, corsages, group table display, meadow arrangement, urn display, sympathy wreath and seasonal display. We also cover the theory too. Looking at ordering, buying from a wholesaler, buying sundries, how to plan and run a wedding.
This course is all about giving students the foundation in floristry before going onto more specialist courses later on. It is so important that students master the basics and The Foundation course for beginners at Flourish Sussex Flower Course offers this in a fun, informative and relaxed environment.
With The Foundation course we also include payment plans, which previous students have found very useful. Payments can be made monthly, or a bespoke package can be created for you.
There is a choice of attending the course in either the evening or the day, so you can choose which training course suits your lifestyle.
Want to find out more? Why not come to our free open evening in March, where I give a talk about the course in further depth, give a demonstration and you get to have a play with a few flowers, oh and have a glass of prosecco of course!
Finally here is a quote from one of our students who completed The Foundation Course in 2018:
‘I recently finished a 10 week beginners course at Flourish Sussex Flower School and I would thoroughly recommend it to any one. It was extremely enjoyable week after week and learnt something new every week. Alicia is extremely talented, knowledgeable and very approachable. It was great to meet a bunch of liked minded students.
The flowers, foliage and techniques used were all amazing. I truly feel I have learned a lot and the course inspired me to start my own business.
This is a great all round course and can't wait to do more.’