‘I opened my dream flower shop’
Yellie walton, 46, lives in waterford, Hertfordshire, with husband will and their two daughters. she is the director of Love Flowers in Hertford. The idea I have a degree in Printed textiles and after I graduated, I became a textiles designer in a studio. but I found working in an office boring, so I left and went to work in a florist’s shop, where I learned the trade. When I got pregnant with my eldest daughter Kittie (now 14), I worked from home as a freelance florist. my dream was to own a flower shop, but I never thought it would happen. then, in 2014, my husband Will and I ran a few pop-up shops around Hertford, selling door wreaths and table arrangements. these went really well, so I knew there was a demand for my natural and relaxed style of flower design. the following year we spotted a shop in Hertford up for lease. originally an old cinema, it had a gated courtyard, and was in a great location for footfall. We decided we had to go for it. Will had been suffering from anxiety due to the pressure of his job in property management, so we knew something had to change. He cut back on work and we approached the landlords about leasing the shop. Will negotiated six months rent-free, as it
needed a lot of work. MaKiNG iT haPPeN We spent two months fixing up the shop – we put in scaffold-plank flooring, exposed some of the brickwork, and painted it top to bottom. my vision was for a lifestyle shop, with flowers, plants, products for the home, plus vintage items. I also organised a space upstairs for workshops. We opened our doors in september 2015. thankfully, it was busy from the start and we got great feedback from customers. after a few months we increased our opening days from six to seven, to take advantage of the number of people out on sundays who want to take home fresh flowers. BReaKThROUGh MOMeNT I was amazed at how many orders we got during our first Christmas, and how popular the door-wreath workshops were. I knew then that people appreciated what we were doing. STeePeST LeaRNiNG CURVe Finding reliable full-time staff has been particularly difficult. WheRe We aRe NOW We’re looking at expanding our flower delivery service from local to nationwide. We run a busy plant club every month, where anyone can come and learn about plant care, and we’re running more workshops, from creating terrariums to making dried flower wreaths. w&h