Flower School

Sisters Deirdre and Janette run Kay’s Flower School in Rialto, which grew from a flower shop first started by their mother Kay O’Rourke 34 years ago. The flower school offers training courses for everyone from total beginners to professionals. Here’s more about the team and how to make your own arrangement.

Tell us about how Kay’s Flower School started?

The school was started by our Mum Kay in 1987, it initially started out as extra income to the well established Flower Shop we had. The evening classes grew and grew that mum spent more time teaching than in the shop, leaving the running of the flower shop to her eldest daughter Janette. In 1989 they made the brave decision to sell the shop and expand the flower school to a full time business that is Kay's Flower School.

In the early days – were there many flower schools – what inspired you to start educating people in floristry?

No absolutely not and it was very much frowned on to teach floristry to people outside the trade. Floristry was a trade you grew up in, family members taught family members and we were not liked for opening the doors and making training accessible. This made us even more determined to grow the flower school. We wanted to make it accessible to anyone who loved flowers and wanted to learn it as a profession. In the past it was seen as a very closed bitchy industry where no one would tell anybody where they bought stock and supplies and support from one florist to another was rarely forthcoming.

But as a business our concern was for our students and they loved us, we taught them the professional floristry skills, gave them the knowledge and trained them in the techniques needed as a professional florist. Many went on to open their own flower businesses and are still running them today, some have even sent their children to train with us.

Thankfully the industry is very different today, and our ethos here at Kay's Flower school is collaboration, not competition. By supporting each other everyone thrives.

Does it help being sisters in the business? Yes definitely. When Mom retired in 2010 Deirdre who was working in Adult Education came on board (back to her roots) and helped bring the flower school into the digital era. She updated our website, grew our social media presence, and we actually started to do a few online courses - but these were more as a backup and support for our classroom based students. Deirdre and I work really well together because we both know where our strengths are. Deirdre loves being behind the camera, editing and creating content, where I haven’t a clue about all that - I am most comfortable in front of the camera. COVID-19 made us move our floristry training completely online in May 2020. Thankfully Deirdre was able to adapt and adjust the courses and now with the help (virtually) of our sister Sinead who lives in Scotland, our online professional programs are proving very popular.

What is a typical student – beginners, enthusiasts, professionals? Mainly our students are those looking to start a new career, change careers or maybe turn a hobby into a profession. We also have many students who enrol on our programs just for fun, maybe to make floral designs for family and friends at home.

Tell us about the online offering – that presumably is even more important with the pandemic? Yes, our four classroom based professional modules are now four online programs. Instead of coming to train with us for four days per course, you now have online training for four weeks per program. We do however now deliver less courses than before but with more attendees on them and students from all corners of the world.

We provided all our Ireland based students with everything they need to create their certificate work, all the tools, floral foam, ribbons wires, fresh flowers and foliage, and every student was made a member of our now famous ‘Bloom Room’. The Bloom Room is where all the students interact with us, their fellow students, they post photos of their work and get feedback. The Bloom Room is what has made our programs such a huge success and allows us to get the best results ever.

What’s the key to the success of the school?

Passion for our industry and the freedom to give as much support, skills and knowledge to our students. We know we go above and beyond to ensure every one of our students ‘get it’.

What does success mean to you? Our success is our students' success, 80 % of the retail and wedding flower industry in Ireland started their journey here at Kay's Flower School. It is watching their success that gives us job satisfaction. Seeing students from Donegal and Kerry come together to collaborate to work on events. Seeing our past students who now run successful businesses take on our present students on work experience. To see those experienced past students being so generous with their knowledge and skills giving the new kid on the block the chance they need. When we see this we smile and say, “They were trained well” – that for us is success

STEP BY STEP SUMMER TABLE ARRANGEMENT

This summer table arrangement would take pride of place at any summer barbecue or special event you may host this year.

1:

To make this Table arrangement you will need

• A 12-inch floral foam ring

• Foliage - foraged from your own garden.

• 10 Peonies, 10 Roses and 5 stems of spray roses which again can be from your garden or purchased locally.

TOP TIP: Make sure your vases are scrupulously clean and if you have a sachet of flower food to add to the water or a cup of 7 Up your flowers will love it. Cut 2 cm from the end of all stems on a 45-degree angle and allow them to drink for a minimum of four hours before you start your table centre.

2:

Trim the severe corner from both the inside and outside edge of the ring. Place the foam ring in water for 2-3 minutes until it's sufficiently soaked.

Photo 3:

Cut your Foliage into pieces approx. 15 cm in length, you will need approx. 50 pieces of foliage.

Photo 4:

Insert the foliage low down on the foam ring on a 45-degree angle. Create a border of foliage all the way around the outside. Keep your pieces close together. If you are mixing the foliage, try to keep the varieties evenly distributed all the way around the ring.

Photo 5:

Once you have completed the border around the outside of the foam ring, continue using a similar pattern and cover in the complete ring. The idea is to camouflage the floral foam. But remember you will be inserting fresh flowers so be careful not to over pack the foam.

Photo 6:

If you are on a budget you can see that by using flowering foliage, like the summer flowering ceanothus, your table centre can still look amazing without using any fresh flowers.

Photo 7:

Our next stage is to add some fabulous summer Peonies. The variety we are using is called Sarah Bernhardt. These are readily available from most flower shops but you may have similar growing in your garden. Cut 5 large peony heads to 20/25 cm.

Always cut on a sharp 45-degree angle, this will make it easier to insert into the floral foam ring. Peonies drink lots of water so make sure to top up the foam with fresh water each day..

Photo 8:

Insert the peonies directly into the top area of the foam ring. Evenly divide 5 of them in a circle around this area as shown.

Photo 9:

Now cut 5 more peonies approx. 25/28 cm in length. Insert these around the outside circle of the form ring in between the centre flowers. These peonies could be substituted for a different variety of flowers like Hydrangeas, roses, germini or even large carnations which are a great lasting flower.

Photo 10:

We now insert 5 white Avalanche roses around the outside of the foam ring, between the 5 peonies. Avalanche are an amazing large headed long lasting rose and are very popular during summer months for summer brides.

Photo 11

We added a contrasting lilac rose around the centre area and where we felt they were needed.

Photo 12:

We used miniature / spray roses as a filler, these can be sourced this time of year from your garden but can be substituted for a less expensive flower like a baby carnation.

Photo 13:

The more varieties and selection of flowers you include the more amazing this table centre will look. Feel free to contact us through our Instagram and Facebook pages for any advice on the selection of flowers you can use.

Photo 14:

To finish off this table centre we have added a glass vase with a candle. A hurricane vase with a battery candle would also be a good substitute. For a party you could also stand a bottle of champagne to the centre or add a goldfish bowl of floating candles or flowers.

For more, visit flowerschoolireland.com