Meet Kelly!

I've had the pleasure of working with the lovely Kelly as a co-op placement once a week for the past month.

Kelly attends the floral course at Toronto's Seneca college and as part of her curriculum she is required to work a number of hours in a flower shop. I did a similar placement with a flower shop in Rosedale when I was studying Retail Floristy at Humber.  Sadly I realize that time has flown, as this was some 20 years ago when I was an enthusiastic young thing like Kelly :) As you can see, Kelly is as big a goof ball as I am, which may be why we are having so much fun at the shop.

I thought it would be fun to have Kelly give you some info on what it is to be a floral student, so without further ado here is my super-student, Kelly:

Kelly, tell us a little about the floral course you are taking- what exactly does it cover?
I'm taking the floral design course at Seneca College! Right now in semester one we have lots of floral labs where myself and 26 other students are taught different design styles, such as; Vase arrangements, hand tied bouquets, container arrangements. wedding bouquets, Corsage and boutonniere work (my favorite thing to work on!), and plenty of other arrangements! So far we have learned the very basic traditional styles and are now moving on to expressing our own style and learning Modern European! In Semester two we are learning about displays, business management, and about different types of indoor and out door plants!

What inspired you to choose flowers as a career path?
I've always known that I wanted to do something very artistic! I come from the small town of Embrun (just outside of Ottawa) and artistic careers are very hard to find without having to travel every day into the city! So in grade 11 when I had to choose a co-op placement I chose my local flower shop! Now as we all know starting a new job is really intimidating, but I chose the worse possible day to start! I started the day before Valentines day, which is a crazy day for most florists, prepping everyone's orders and making bouquets! It was crazy! But I made it through and have worked in the industry for the past 2 years and I have no intention of stopping any time soon!

What is your favourite part of being in the flower trade?
Seeing peoples faces when you deliver flowers to them! Seeing people so happy is just thrilling and makes all your hard work worth it!

What is the coolest thing you've done or made so far?
I've done lots of really cool stuff (especially at Periwinkle Flowers! hint hint good grade!), But the coolest thing I've made so far would have to be my mum's mothers day arrangement I made two years ago! I had just started my floral career and I wanted to show off and show mum what I could do! So I bought her a vase and made her this huge arrangement out of all different colours of gerbera daisies (my mum's favorite flower) and these huge purple and green leaves! I also included my brothers, my dads, my favorite flowers, as well as choosing a stem of daisies for my family dog! She was so thrilled and I am looking forward to doing it again this year! :)

Where do you hope flowers takes you in the future?
Well the goal is to open up my own flower shop but I would love to work abroad in Holland at one of their flower shops!

What's your favourite flower?
Oh that's a tough one Jess! I love almost every flower excluding carnations! But I would have to say Dendrobium orchids in light pink or blue!


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Thanks Kelly for sharing your experiences as a student with us!  It is an absolute pleasure to have Kelly in the shop, she is a happy and enthusiastic co-worker and  her design work certainly reflects that as well as her creativity.  I predict she will achieve all her floral goals without a problem :)

-----jess