My first two posts have been about me and so I thought it might be appropriate to talk about my extra limb, which of course is A Pocketful of Roses. You can read how I came to be Florist here. If you know me, you know how passionate I am about so many things. I do photography here—mainly maternity, breastfeeding and family. But this is on hold because Floristry is my baby right now. I have a great idea for photography that I'm dyyying to do but now is not the time. What can I say, I'm a creative. It's a big part of who I am.
For those of you who believe that Floristry is all fun and games, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to break it to you; it's not. It's a business and like all businesses it requires some smart advertising and planning among so many other things. Boy, did I not know this when I started, argh! BUT I have survived (thus far) and am learning so so much along the way, yay! Feel free to pass on some suggestions hehe. And this is a big reason for creating Flower Play—so others can enjoy Floristry without the added stresses.
Last year I launched my flower delivery service. I didn't actually know that I'd be going down that route until mid-last year aha. I have loved those affordable flower delivery services in Sydney but they never reached us down here in the south so I took it upon myself to start one up.
Not an easy thing to do like you would think. The biggest challenge is reach. That's the case with any business. And I went from one area to cover, to three: The Illawarra, Wollondilly and Southern Highlands. These are my favourite areas ever so it was only natural that I offered my flowers here. I have a vision of employing people from these areas to deliver to their local community. It makes me feel good to do that. I just hope it takes off... no pressure!
When I began in 2016, I used hessian to wrap my flowers in. Do you remember that? It seems like so long ago I was setting up at Foragers Market in Wollongong. It was really pretty and I can really only remember one other flower businesses using hessian. Now it's quite popular but is a real doozy for travelling. So I had to rethink my options. I then came across vase boxes.
I've always been conscious about the impact I personally have on the environment but the efforts I made to minimise my negative impact was pretty slim and pretty stagnant. I have made more improvements and I continue to be aware... only, I'm in an industry that has so much waste! That's another reason behind the change from flower wrap to box.
Here is my posy PETITE sitting pretty in the vase box. It's definitely a more minimalist look. I definitely love that wow-factor that comes with lots of wrapping paper and ribbon and such, but it would go against my positive efforts towards being environmentally friendly. I definitely have a long way to go. Still so much plastic being used—like the wrapping flowers come in at the flower market and the fresh water bag I use to keep the posies in—but I do have some changes in the making which will make a big difference. So keep your eyes peeled.
What are some ways you think I could improve re: being environmentally friendly? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.