‘COVID turned City into a ghost town’
Royal Borough: Stems blossoms again after move back home
A successful London florist has moved to Windsor and is now set up in Thames Street.
Stems of Windsor, formerly Stems of Holborn was in operation for 36 years as a cut flowers specialist catering for television and celebrity events, as well as corporate events and weddings.
But the pandemic had ‘wiped out’ 80 per cent of its business in Holborn, said owner Janet Davies.
Janet was born in Old Windsor and attended Windsor schools before moving to Sweden as a translator.
She became interested in floristry and trained as a florist in Stockholm but missed England and moved back to Windsor.
She set up shop in Holborn
and had a lot of success for many years – but because of COVID, it has turned into a ‘ghost town’, Janet said.
“Any florist that caters for weddings, events or corporate has this problem. If you’re having a wedding of nine people, you aren’t going to have a flower budget of thousands of pounds,” she said.
On the stretch where Stems was previously, the 25 shops that served mainly office workers have dropped down to about three remaining tenants, as so many office workers are still working from home, Janet said,
“My customers [in Windsor] are the people who used to be our London footfall,” said Janet.
There is an upside to having needed to move the business to Windsor – it is now right on Janet’s doorstep, cutting down her own commute time significantly.
“It’s come at the right time for me. Floristry is a very hard job, you have to look after the flowers so much, so it’s very nice not to have the commute anymore,” she said.
Though it only set up shop in Windsor on Tuesday, Stems is happy with the level of interest so far. The pandemic has also created a ‘good opportunity’
for visibility.
“Unlike when everywhere was busy, people are walking a lot more now – walking by the river and feeding the ducks,” Janet said.
Stems of Windsor can be found at 58 Thames Street opposite the Sir Christopher Wren Hotel.
Visit the website at www.stemsfloraldesign.com