Florist Jobs

When was the last time you bought flowers? Or when was the last time someone gave you flowers? Flowers are a wonderful surprise and a special treat. Their colors, aromas, and arrangements help set the mood for any special occasion.

Flowers are beautiful examples of nature at its finest. They are also a wonderful way to express emotions like luck, innocence, love, friendship, pride, grief, or sorrow. The art of floristry includes the cultivation, arranging, marketing, and selling of flowers. Floriculture is a multi-billion dollar industry that gets bigger every year.

Florists are the creative geniuses behind the floral arrangements that you can buy at floral shops, grocery stores, or through the Internet. They are the ones who use carnations, daffodils, delphiniums, heathers, irises, larkspurs, lilacs, lillies, orchids, proteas, queen anne’s lace, roses, snapdragons, stocks, sunflowers, tulips, ambrosias, bluebells, and bittersweets to design lovely bouquets, wreaths, corsages, and flower arrangements. Florists live in every city and town across the country and supply flowers to happy consumers like you.

Florists have in-depth knowledge of every flower, bud, and blossom. A keen eye for design helps them create spectacular displays that consumers can buy for special occasions. Flowers are sold all year long, but florists are busiest on special holidays like Valentine’s Day, Secretary’s Day, or Mother’s Day. Other big events like weddings, birthdays, proms, graduations, funerals, and anniversaries use flowers to express the mood of the day.

Creativity and originality are key attributes of any skilled florist. Their job is all about design. Florists know which flowers go with which colors. They are experts at what every flower means. They can mix and match vases, designs, arrangements, and colors to fit any occasion. Florists talk to clients to find out what message they want to send with the flowers and then they let their creativity go wild.

Florists keep fresh flowers on hand for any and all occasions. To keep flowers fresh year round they work with wholesalers. Wholesale flower dealers purchase flowers from flower growing states like California, Washington, Hawaii, Florida, or Oregon. Sometimes they have to import flowers from countries like Colombia, Ecuador, Netherlands, Costa Rica, Mexico, or Canada. Flower importation and wholesaling is a big part of the industry. Without it, you’d be hard pressed to find exactly what you want at your corner floral shop.

After the flowers get to the floral shop, the florist is responsible for the flowers. They need to water, feed, and trim any fresh flowers and market them to sell while they are still fresh. Florists also work with artificial and silk flowers. Most florists use foam, wire, and wood to make their floral designs stand out and look sharp. It’s not uncommon for fresh flowers to be complemented with fake flowers, foliage, potted plants, ribbons, balloons, or fancy vases. Many florists also are involved with gift baskets and chocolate sales.

Nearly 100,000 florists work in the United States at around 20,000 different retail flower stores. These stores get their flowers from about 6,000 domestic growers and from abroad. Sales are made from walk-in orders, online orders, and special orders. Also See: Retail Jobs section.

Wherever you can buy flowers there is an opportunity to find a florist job. As long as you love flowers and have a creative spark, you can become a professional florist.

Florist Salary Information

Florists make about $8 to $13 per hour or $19,000 to $28,000 per year. They can make more if they are self-employed. Many florists obtain professional certification from the American Institute of Floral Designers. Some go to floral art school. Others obtain degrees in horticulture, biology, or botany, but there are no formal educational requirements.

Quick Facts About Florist Careers

Job Title: Florist
Description: Design and sell floral arrangements
Employers: Retail Floral Shops, Online Florists, Self-Employed, Grocery Stores.
Pay: $8 to $13 per hour or $19,000 to $28,000 per year

Links:
American Floral Art School
World Flower Council
American Floral Industry Association
International Floral Distributors
American Institute of Floral Designers
Society of American Florists
Floral Design Magazine