The skills that matter most in a flower shop are stamina, steady prep work and patient customer service. Design comes later. Much later. Here is what I learned working in two local flower shops, mostly while holding a broom.

How I Got Started in the Flower Business

I began with continuing education courses in floral design at my local university. I first took Level 1 twelve years ago and loved it, but I did not do anything with it then. Years later, I took Level 1 again, and then Level 2, and this time the timing was right. I have always wanted to have my own business, and flowers seemed like a way to try it without risking too much.

The second time around, I asked my teacher how I could find out whether I would actually enjoy working with flowers. Her answer was practical. Go to your local flower shop and volunteer, because Valentine's Day was coming up.

So, I did. I printed photos of the arrangements I had made in class as a small portfolio and brought it with me, feeling very official. A portfolio shows a shop owner that you are serious.

My first arrangement

I volunteered a few days a week, in four-hour shifts, starting a couple of weeks before Valentine's Day. One of the first days I was asked to build an arrangement with any flowers in the cooler. It was okay. Not great. Okay. The owner told me I would look back on it one day and not believe where I started. My brain was screaming, hopefully!

Nobody starts out good. You get good by making a lot of arrangements, including a lot of okay ones.

The Real Job Is Prep and Cleanup

I did far more hustling than designing. Design is only about 20% of the job. The rest looked like this:

Sweeping the floor
Washing buckets, then washing more buckets
Watering the plants in the shop
Cleaning and prepping flowers
Wrapping flowers (a lot of wrapping, before anyone let me design anything)
Breaking down cardboard boxes and taking them to the recycling

If you are picturing yourself arranging beautiful flowers all day, I would gently adjust that picture. Picture a broom.

Customer Service Skills, Nobody Warns You About

The other surprise was how much of the job is sales and customer service. Working the front of a flower shop meant learning to:

Work the cash register
Answer the phone and enter credit card numbers while talking to the customer (yes, at the same time)
Take every detail the business needs for each order
Call recipients to check whether they will be home for a delivery
Suggest colours and flowers
Build arrangements on the spot while the customer watches over your shoulder

Designing with someone watching is very different from designing alone at a class table. Practise before you apply. Buy flowers at your local Safeway or Costco and practice. For extra credit, ask someone to stand right behind you and watch.

A Customer Story: The Caller from Vancouver

One phone call taught me more about service than any class could. A woman called from Vancouver wanting to send one big arrangement to her sister and her family. It had to cover several occasions at once, including a birthday, a holiday and a memorial.

She took her time choosing flowers and writing the perfect note. I was on the phone with her for more than 30 minutes, and I read her message back five or six times before it was right. By the end, I knew that note by heart. She spent $280, delivery included. A thoughtful customer is not a slow customer, and the time I gave her was part of the service.

The single white rose

Not every important order is a big one. One day a woman came in wanting one white rose with greenery, a white ribbon tied a specific way, and her note tied on. Easy, right?

It was for a friend who had died. As she told me about her friend, she started to cry. It was just the two of us in the shop. There was no boss to look at and no script. I like to fix things, and there was nothing to fix. So I did the one thing I could do, which was listen.

It took a while to get the bow right. Then I wrapped it in tissue and clear cellophane. Some orders are really about the time you give someone.

Be Honest About the Physical Side

Flower shop work was far more physical than I expected. There was bending, lifting boxes of flowers, emptying them, walking back and forth to the cooler, and carrying flattened cardboard 30 or 40 feet to the recycling. I am 50, and my body made its opinion very clear. I worked at two flower shops at once for three months, and then my back gave out. I was spending much of what I earned on massage therapy and acupuncture.

I had to pivot. Today I work as a florist out of my own home, where I can sit when I need to and take only as many orders as I can handle.

What the shops taught me

Even though I did not stay, I learned a lot about:

Pricing and what sells
Buying
Names of flowers
What looks good and why
What you need to have in your cooler
How a shop runs, including separate delivery routes for northwest Calgary and the rest of the city, and where each order waits until its day

My Advice

Practise at home, constantly

Cream roses, hydrangea and pink wax flower in a glass vase on a woven tray. — *Vased arrangement*

Even though I only worked two or three days a week at the beginning, I practised every day. I watched YouTube videos, borrowed library books, bought flowers at Safeway and Costco, and picked up secondhand vases. Then I practised what I was learning at work: spiral bouquets, vased arrangements, cubes. I am still learning and still taking courses.

Should you try it?

My honest answer is yes, try it, but try it the smart way. Take a course if you can, then volunteer at a local flower shop during a busy time like Valentine's Day. Bring photos of your work. Show up ready to sweep and wash buckets. And pay attention to your body, because the work is physical.

Even if a shop job is not your long-term path, what you learn about pricing, buying and treating customers well will stay with you. It is the reason I run my own floral business today.

Ready to find your first flower job? Read How to Get a Florist Job With No Experience.

Skills You Need to Work at a Flower Shop