Thoughts on 10 extraordinary years in business from Sarah Diligent, founder of Floribunda Rose
Where it all began
I’ll be honest, initially I had no intention of starting a business. I had been a nanny for 20 years specialising in looking after twins and triplets and had worked all over the world… but I had fallen in love with flowers and the joy that they bring to people’s lives.
It was whilst on a course at Green and Gorgeous that I first encountered the full glory of British flowers. As I stepped into their sweet pea filled polytunnel and was immersed in their fragrance and admired the twiddly tendrils I realised that these flowers were a world apart from the boxes of dead straight stems that I was used to picking up from the supermarket, or occasionally from a florist shop.
one of the first weddings of Floribunda Rose
I enrolled in a floristry course at Merrist Wood college and though the flowers we used were imported and the style wasn’t as natural as I’d have liked, I learned some basic techniques and I knew that I wanted flowers to be a part of my life.
I tried to get some experience in flower shops in London, but had no luck despite volunteering to work two days a week for free… I wasn’t experienced enough, or they weren’t taking anyone on, or they didn’t have room for me. I was a bit heartbroken; it felt like an impenetrable industry that neither wanted nor needed me.
I moved out of London to a sleepy village in Hampshire and practiced what I had learned. When I ran out of floral supplies I went to a local craft shop and got chatting with their floral expert Sybil, who upon hearing how much I wanted to work with flowers offered to train me up herself – she had run her own flower shop in her home country of South Africa and suggested I find a place where I could do flowers. I rented a garage and set up a rudimentary flower studio.
Sybil trained me up, teaching me about conditioning, processing and storing flowers as well as how to create designs. She was the expert I needed. She taught me everything she knew. She believed in me and championed me whilst always being happy to dish out a healthy dose of realism when I got carried away.
Launching a Business
Two years after falling in love with flowers I launched Floribunda Rose in 2014. We started doing weddings and though terrified of getting it all wrong, the feeling of giving a bride her bouquet on the morning of her wedding day and her loving it was addictive. That joy got me through the early starts, the bucket scrubbing and the admin. I found that I could say things with flowers that I hadn’t been able to before. Their transient nature, though challenging at times meant that every stem was special, and the possibilities endless.
Back then I was not a good businesswoman, I was not charging enough for the designs I was creating, I didn’t think that I was good enough or experienced enough to ask for payment that aligned with industry standards (I didn’t even know what they were).
Over the years I realised that sustainability was about more than trying to be as green as possible, a business must make enough money to pay all the bills and all the staff – including me. You can have the greenest business going, but if you can’t stay in business you aren’t sustainable. That’s why in our flower school discussing pricing is so important to me. I want to see other florists’ businesses thrive. There’s room for us all, we each have different styles and use different combinations of flowers.
Just as artists create unique pieces, so we can as florists. I am passionate about sharing knowledge, not guarding it fiercely as was all too common when I started out. A rising tide lifts all boats.
British Flowers
A little while after I started flowering weddings I found out about a flower grower who was growing flowers a stone’s throw from the studio, and an organisation called ‘Flowers from the Farm’ - a whole network of flower growers across the UK. I must admit, when I first started meeting growers I was scared they’d laugh at my lack of knowledge, I knew about imported flowers, but not the flowers that were grown here in the UK. Rather than laugh at me they shared their knowledge and supplied me with flowers that I learned the names of slowly but surely and my confidence began to build.
Things have changed since those early days; now with strong connections to numerous flower growers large and small throughout the country we have access to a range of flowers which weren’t available just a few years ago. It has been incredible to watch and be a part of the resurgence of British grown flowers.
The more I worked with British flowers the more I fell in love with the seasonality of this way of working, the anticipation of the return of roses or sweet peas, dahlia, or lily of the valley was exciting and the joy of having any one of these ingredients back on the floral menu was fantastic. I also realised that the fragrance of flowers was important – olfactory memories are some of the strongest, a waft of jasmine, or a garden rose, transported people back to moments in gardens when they were children, long forgotten memories were brought back in an instant, and I wanted these special memories to be woven into wedding and event flowers too.
I worked hard to make the garage studio a place of beauty and tranquillity and before long had requests for floristry classes and I jumped at the chance to share flowers with more people. Seeing people learn new skills and create floral designs they were delighted with gave me huge joy.
I built up a team of freelancers as the weddings we were doing had got far too big for Sybil and I to do alone. I was proud of the work we were doing together but realised that our space was holding us back, and so set about finding a bigger studio.
The second studio was bigger (and smarter) and more expensive. I felt the pressure of bigger overheads but believed in what we were doing. Within a year it was clear to me that we needed more space still, and higher ceilings so that we could teach hanging installations and arches, urn arrangements and more besides… so we moved again.
The Barn at Whitehouse Farm
When I went to view the barn at Whitehouse farm it was a cold bright day in February in 2018. It had last been used by a garage mechanic and it was basic. Very basic, but much bigger. There was nothing but a coffee vending machine upstairs, and downstairs was rudimentary at best. That said, when I opened the huge doors and stepped inside I knew that this place could be amazing.
It took four months of hard graft to get it ready and to move everything (again) but this time we had space, and high ceilings and despite its humble beginnings it became a beautiful place to create and to share the beauty of flowers.
This has been our floral home ever since and we’ve hosted countless classes at Floribunda Rose flower school, supplied wedding flowers for couples to collect with our Elements service and had many an early start delivering our full wedding service weddings from Durham to Cornwall and all manner of places in between. We have delivered flowers to castles and even to royalty, won awards at Chelsea, Hampton Court and Malvern flower shows and more than any of these accolades, we have brought joy to people.
The Book
Along the way we encountered a recurring question, “is there a book we can buy that outlines the techniques you use” and I kept having to saying no, I hadn’t found one. A lot of information was out there scattered about, but there was no one book that put it all together in one place. In truth I wished there was, I would have loved one myself – I felt as though there should be.
In 2018 New Covent Garden Flower Market chose Floribunda Rose as one of the designers for British Flowers Week which was being held at The Garden Museum and it was here that I met William. He was as passionate about British flowers as I was. We hit it off. With his background in Product Design and my passion for sustainable floristry we began to discuss whether maybe we could write the book that needed writing.
In 2020 after crowdfunding to secure the money needed to bring this project to life we released A Guide to Floral Mechanics. On day one, in the midst of a global pandemic, we sent 1200 copies out into the world. We had the most incredible support from florists and flower arrangers on every continent, and we still send books out three times a week to this day. It has been fondly dubbed ‘the florists bible’ and considering we had no idea how well it would be received, that has been astounding to us. We didn’t want to alienate people, we wanted to give new options and share our methods, and to our delight people were happy to embrace them. Our approach has never been about shaming or greenwashing, rather leading by example and hoping that others are willing to question what more they can do – to try one thing at a time, and do better, little by little.
Every piece of floral foam that has ever been used is still somewhere, whether that’s in landfill or in tiny microplastics washed into waterways after it has been soaked, it hasn’t gone away – just because we can’t see it when it’s thrown away, doesn’t mean it’s gone.
The British Cut Flower Calendar
These days working foam free isn’t considered groundbreaking. As florists we celebrate nature, and the way we work as an industry shouldn’t be detrimental to the planet. Floristry is changing and I’m enormously proud that Floribunda Rose and A Guide to Floral Mechanics is a part of that.
The flower calendar at the Floribunda Rose studio
Whilst creating proposals for couples we often found ourselves scouring availability lists and books to see what might be in flower in the couple’s colour palette when they were getting married. It took too long. What we needed was an at a glance print that outlined the flowers that were likely to be available arranged by colour. It took us over a year to pull all of the information together (and the biggest spreadsheet I’ve ever seen) and thanks to William’s patience and tenacity we created our wall print British Cut Flowers arranged by colour. It’s something we refer to ahead of every wedding, event and workshop and makes our lives so much easier.
Behind the scenes we continue to update the way we do things. We’ve developed ways to work with flowers both physically and on paper. A little spoken about side of floristry for weddings and events is the sheer volume of planning that goes on ahead of a big day – 90% of the work we do is working to ensure everything is the best it can possibly be for those few hours that are such a special time in people’s lives. There’s no second chance, so everything we do has to be meticulously planned.
Now and Next
Going forward we’re going to continue to develop our methods and share what works in classes and who knows, maybe even in another book someday. We’re looking forward to flowering more incredible events and weaving scent and beauty into people’s special moments.
Flowers are our medium, but to me this job is about so much more than flowers, it’s about celebrating life’s meaningful moments, and empowering others who find the same joy in flowers to do so more sustainably.
Thank you!
Thank you to every single person who has supported me and my business along the way. To every person who has bought a book or a print, attended a class or trusted us to create flowers for their wedding or sympathy flowers to celebrate their loved ones. Thank you to the phenomenal growers who have shared their knowledge and grown the flowers and foliage that we have used. Huge thanks to the talented team members who have given their all whilst working with us.
We wouldn’t be here without you.
Here’s to the next ten years, I can’t wait to see what they bring!
