Jane’s blooming passion

Jul 2 2009 By Ian Halstead

Floristry is much more than just flower-arranging. Ian Halstead talks to an expert in the field who has delighted princes and presidents.

If you should spend time in Jane Cowan’s effervescent company, don’t ever joke that floristry is surely just flower-arranging by a different name. Her look of disgust would turn any onlooker to stone.

Her unspoken ire is entirely understandable, given her many years of training and research leading to an intensive 18-month study programme for her latest qualification.

This month Jane becomes one of just a handful of people in the UK to be awarded a Masters Diploma in Professional Floristry – the highest qualification available.

“People think floristry is about getting a bunch of flowers and bunging them into a vase, but I’ve been studying for the past 18 months solid, and almost every weekend has been spent at college, or completing assignments,” she says, with fervour.

“We have to acquire detailed knowledge about business skills, marketing, design and finance. We even had to learn 400 botanical names for each genus and species – in Latin – and to understand which flowers might cause medical problems for people, or their pets.”

Jane’s studies included analysis of how different floral culture had evolved in Manchester, Scotland, London, Wales and Dorset. She also created an innovative corporate wall design for Wolverhampton-based Birmingham Midshires.

The Society of Floristry reckons that even an experienced florist needs five to seven years to hone their skills – and their business and botanical knowledge – to gain professional status.

For Jane, though, the ceremony climaxes a love affair with flowers stretching back almost 30 years.

As a teenager, she was told to find a Saturday job in her home city of Wolverhampton, and headed for the Interflora shop in Tettenhall.

“It was wonderful,” she recalls. “Every day was different, and you were dealing with so many different emotions, as you tried to satisfy each customer.

“People think it’s just about arranging flowers in vases, but you are helping people express how they feel, whether the order is for a wedding, a birthday, a funeral, or just to make their home look pretty.

“I’d always liked art, and people told me I had a flair for design. I liked working with people too, and everything just came together in floristry.”

Jane returned to school, knowing she wanted to spend her life working with flowers, but the careers teachers weren’t impressed.

“They kept telling me I was too bright to be a florist, but fortunately my parents were very supportive, and thought I should follow my instincts.”

The trail led first to Birmingham’s Bournville College, where Jane acquired a City & Guilds in floristry, at Levels One, Two, and Three, via day release.

At the same time, her fledgling career blossomed in Wolverhampton, where her parents took a lease on a small shop.However,