{"id":9537,"date":"2019-01-12T18:20:18","date_gmt":"2019-01-12T18:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovenfreshflowers.com\/floral-cohorts-professional-florist-training\/"},"modified":"2025-03-22T02:09:33","modified_gmt":"2025-03-22T02:09:33","slug":"floral-cohorts-professional-florist-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovenfreshflowers.com\/floral-cohorts-professional-florist-training\/","title":{"rendered":"Floral Cohorts: A New Approach to Professional Florist Training"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Floral<\/figure>\n\n\n

It\u2019s been 10 very eventful (and event-filled!) years since I officially launched Love \u2018n Fresh Flowers in January of 2009.\u00a0 I was talking to a dear flower friend the other day and reminiscing about how it felt back then to open up my heart to a business idea that seemed so exciting and yet so terrifying without any solid florist training or experience. \u00a0I just had a dream back then. \u00a0I knew essentially nothing about the floral industry. What I did know was that I wanted change.\u00a0 I knew I wanted to get back to something more tactile than the paper-pushing I had been doing as a corporate cog.\u00a0 I wanted to do work that mattered.<\/p>\n

I saw a niche that begged to be filled in the floral market (making blooms grown right here in Philadelphia elegant and desirable for weddings), and I decided to just go for it.\u00a0 I quit my corporate job and started a flower farm (waaaaay before that was a trendy thing to do).\u00a0 Almost immediately I got asked to do flowers for a wedding.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to lie here: I had no idea what I was doing for that first wedding.\u00a0 None!\u00a0 I have the proposal for that very first wedding laminated and tucked in my bookcase at my office.\u00a0 I pull it out on occasion, glance over the numbers and the naive promises made therein, and remind myself how very far I\u2019ve come.<\/p>\n

A Need for Professional Florist Training<\/h2>\n

Back in 2009, I was a self-declared floral professional stumbling around like a kitten with her eyes only half open.\u00a0 I really should have gotten more professional florist training before launching my business, but I was a) in a hurry and b) couldn\\’t find a program teaching sustainable design techniques and on-trend styles.\u00a0 Instead, I poked and prodded wherever I could, trying to get more knowledge specific to the immediate marketplace here in Philly. \u00a0I even pretended to be a bride and visited one of the big shops to ask about pricing, something that bothers my conscious to this day.<\/p>\n

I got lucky though and pieced together enough information to bootstrap my way to running a successful floral business.\u00a0 The key was to connect to experienced pros on a personal level via two great organizations. At\u00a0Longwood Gardens, I was able to take floral design classes that taught the fundamentals and mechanics of solid design.\u00a0 And through the\u00a0Association for Specialty Cut Flower Growers\u00a0(ASCFG), I learned a lot about business and managing events through informal mentors like Neil and Carol Caggiano and Mike and Polly Hutchison.\u00a0 Through my membership in the ASCFG, I\u2019ve also fostered utterly irreplaceable friendships with flower farmers and florists across the country that have fed my soul and been a critical sounding board when shit hits the fan in my flower dream machine.<\/p>\n

These connections, the generous transfer of hard-won knowledge, the occasional moment of tough love, and the shared tears have made Love \u2018n Fresh not only possible, but a highly successful business pioneering a new way of doing that business.\u00a0 In 2009, the floral trends seemed stacked against me (farm flowers were relegated to mason jars and considered as cheap as the dirt they came from), but my hodgepodge cohort of floral colleagues that were willing to equally exchange best practices and anecdotes meant I could gather what I needed to buck the odds.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had a lot of leadership roles in these past ten years.\u00a0 I\u2019ve just started my tenure as President of the very same ASCFG.\u00a0 I\u2019ve gone back and been the teacher for floral design classes at Longwood Gardens.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve taught hundreds of students at workshops, classes, clubs, and conferences of all kinds.\u00a0 And yet, I\u2019ve never felt like I\u2019ve matched what was given to me.\u00a0 I\u2019ve wrestled with how to send out into the floral world what was so generously imparted to me.<\/p>\n

At the same time, I\u2019ve watched this once stuffy and FTD-infused industry evolve and transform into a vibrant, animated, but often chaotic whirlpool that churns with the latest list of the Top Ten Pinterest Worthy Bouquets per\u00a0The Knot<\/em>\u00a0or Our Favorite Florists on Instagram per the\u00a0NY Times<\/em>\u00a0or the Top 62 Floral Designers in the nation per\u00a0Martha Stewart Weddings<\/em>. \u00a0Not to mention the latest podcast or online course giving glossy generalizations to inspire more creatives to take the leap into flowers.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong: I\u2019ve been honored and humbled to be included on some of these lists, podcasts, and courses!\u00a0 But what these all have done is create a frenetic pace in our industry that can\u2019t be sustained. \u00a0There\u2019s a race to get noticed \u2013 to be part of the trend \u2013 to glean just enough soundbites \u2013 to grab market share at dire costs \u2013 rather than build a solid foundation for this new floral revolution.\u00a0 It\u2019s like a 9-year-old kid in a Spiderman costume running around the living room at 11 PM on a sugar rush. \u00a0Ironically, while the focus in the floral world here on the East Coast has shifted noticeably toward more sustainable flowers since I started (hooray!), we\u2019ve somehow managed to lose sight of how to build sustainable\u00a0businesses<\/em>\u00a0and, more importantly, an industry that can sustain us all for the long haul.\u00a0 There\\’s a decided lack of professional florist training.\u00a0 The existing florist training options are generally still part of that old guard, focused on foam and ratios.\u00a0 I can understand why there\\’s not a stampede to join AIFD <\/a>for florist training.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While mulling all of this over, a lot of ideas came to my mind.\u00a0 There\u2019s clearly a problem here. \u00a0I\u2019m a natural-born problem solver; nothing makes my brain twitch quite like searching for solutions!\u00a0 I could start my own podcast and get gritty.\u00a0 I could create my own online course.\u00a0 I could write a book.\u00a0 (Clearly, I like writing\u2026hopefully someone\u2019s still actually reading this!)<\/p>\n

But no.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to hide behind a glowing screen.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to generalize and make sweeping statements in a podcast that can be heard in every time zone.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to be a static picture on the dust jacket of a book.\u00a0 Frankly, I\u2019m not interested in helping everyone with broad strokes of advice.\u00a0 I need to make this personal and powerful.<\/p>\n

I want to help just a select few to start \u2013 a select few right here in my own region \u2013 and build incredibly honest relationships that support and sustain.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t want that relationship to be singular.\u00a0 What made Love \u2018n Fresh Flowers successful was the professional friends\/peers I gathered around me at the beginning of my journey that have been there every day since when I needed them.\u00a0 They are my safety net, my sounding board, my hive mind, my drinking buddies, my cheerleaders.\u00a0\u00a0 They are my cohort.<\/p>\n

Floral Cohorts<\/h2>\n

In 2019, we\\’ll be launching an entirely new way to train to be a professional florist here at Love \\’n Fresh Flowers!\u00a0 We\\’re calling this new format Floral Cohorts.\u00a0\u00a0If you have dreamed of entering the floral industry or if you have already started but feel a bit lost, joining a Floral Cohort will give you a home base for learning all the fundamentals you need to stride confidently along your creative path. \u00a0This is the perfect learning experience in particular for aspiring floral freelancers and small event design start-ups.<\/p>\n

So, what is a cohort exactly?\u00a0 Cohorts are common in graduate school programs where they are used to encourage a more dynamic, collaborative, and supportive learning environment to carry students through their intensive graduate program.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be adopting this same format for a small-group learning experience based out of our flower farm in Philadelphia.\u00a0 Each Floral Cohort will be capped at 10 students who will complete the program together over the course of 10 months.\u00a0 These 10 students will become peers; flower friends for life!\u00a0 They will be your support network that steers your floral endeavors to success.<\/p>\n

While I already teach plenty of dynamic floral design workshops at the farm, they provide only a limited time for students to interact, both with each other and with me.\u00a0 I \u00a0wanted to create a more long-term format that would not only teach critical skills at a professional level and increase knowledge, but also build lasting relationships and a community of sisters in stems so we can foster a healthier and more sustainable floral industry in our region.<\/p>\n

Sure, there are\u00a0plenty<\/em>\u00a0of ways to tackle florist training through online videos and courses!\u00a0 But those online options do not provide you with face-to-face friendships and peer-to-peer support that will last long after the course work is done!\u00a0 Floral Cohorts are about far more than just flowers.\u00a0 They are about holding space for one another; for fighting the good fight together to spread more beauty throughout the world in a way that allows you to thrive on a personal level as well.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll earn a Certificate of Completion at the conclusion of your Cohort series to validate your professional florist training.\u00a0 This certificate carries a valuable stamp of approval to open doors to more freelance design opportunities and full time positions with respected event designers in our region and around the U.S. \u00a0And you\u2019ll get street cred with established event florists you may have been wanting to collaborate with or befriend.<\/p>\n

Have I piqued your interest?\u00a0 I truly hope so! This concept is one that I feel fervently is needed right now.\u00a0 We all need more connections.\u00a0 We all benefit from training. We all need to learn how to compete fairly.<\/p>\n

Oh, yeah, I had better mention right here and now:\u00a0 this is no #communityovercompetition pitch.\u00a0 I\u2019m all about competition!\u00a0 But it needs to be\u00a0fair<\/u>\u00a0competition where everyone got the same rule book in advance and there\u2019s no loaded dice.\u00a0 Respectful competition that acknowledges how hard we are all working to pay rent.\u00a0 When customers pick you because you found\u00a0your\u00a0<\/em>niche and you\u2019re making a tidy profit while sticking to your creative guns, that\u2019s when you\u2019ve really got a sustainable business on your hands!\u00a0 That\u2019s what we\u2019re after here!<\/p>\n

To learn more about how a Floral Cohort works, the florist training you\\’ll receive, and how to apply to join one, click over to the Floral Cohorts page on our website.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>If you\\’re serious about your flower dreams and you\\’re within driving distance of Philadelphia, please consider joining.\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been 10 very eventful (and event-filled!) years since I officially launched Love \u2018n Fresh Flowers in January of 2009.\u00a0 I was talking to a dear flower friend the other day and reminiscing about how it felt back then to open up my heart to a business idea that seemed so exciting and yet so 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