My Career: ‘I’m surrounded by women who love flowers..how wonderful is that’

Name: Flicky Howe

Age: 47

Lives: Kilbrittain, Co.Cork

Job title: Farmer Florist

Salary bracket: €30-45k

Education background: N.Dip (equivalent BA) Art & Design 2001, FETAC Fashion Tech. Certificate 2003, Microsoft Office & Photoshop Diploma 2015.

Hobbies: film, live music, travel, anything to do with plants, flowers and gardening.

Describe your job in five words: Artisan, romantic, handcrafted, nurturing, design-led.

Describe yourself in five words: Creative, empathetic, grounded, attentive, thoughtful.

Personality needed for this kind of work? Creative and adaptable.

How long are you doing this job? I created my current job for myself officially in 2019, but I have worked on and off in floristry since I was 16!

How did you get this job?

I started out with a summer job in a garden centre (The West Cork Garden Centre) while in secondary school, where there was a florist department, which I got pulled into to help make orders, and I really liked this area of work. I worked here at weekends and summer holidays from 1995 to 1997.

When I began college in Galway in September, 1997, I needed a weekend job, so I approached a florist in the city centre, Flowers By Kay, and ended up working there part-time at weekends and holidays for almost five years throughout my time in college in both Galway and Dublin.

There were some very talented florists working at Kays, and I attribute almost all my florist technical skills to them. I feel my time working there was the equivalent of a florist apprenticeship.

Following college, I set up a design studio at home which I ran from 2003 to 2006, making various fashion accessories such as embellished stoles, scarves, beaded jewellery and fascinators, as well as some one-off garments (including a couple of wedding dresses!), but, while it was busy and gaining momentum, it wasn’t making enough money to pay the bills, and so it was another few part-time jobs - a couple of florists, a pet shop, and even on an assembly line in a medical device manufacturers (that one did not last very long, I might add).

In 2006, I had my daughter, and, realising I needed to have more stability financially, I wrapped up my design business and went to work in Daisy Chain, a busy florist in Kinsale, where I worked for 12 years.

But of course, it wasn’t the only job! I flitted in and out of occasional teaching roles at Kinsale Pottery and Art School and Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa, teaching various jewellery and accessory-making courses and classes too.

I also set up an online design shop called Darling Violets with my friend Maxine for a while; lots of lovely, dreamy pursuits filled with beauty and creativity, but not financially sustainable, sadly.

Eventually, I began growing some of my own flowers in my garden around 2015/2016, which at first was a little “nice thing to do”, which then transformed into “oh, maybe I can make a few extra euros selling a few homegrown blooms”.

I became utterly hooked, and in early 2019, I completed Floret’s online flower farming class. I made a fairly quick decision, following a meeting with Jackie Gowran in West Cork LEO, to stop being the worker bee flitting between many (lovely, dreamy) jobs, but to focus and give my all to ONE job that I would make for myself. In May, 2019, Howe Hill Flowers launched.

Do you need particular qualifications or experience?

I could say no, but, when I am seeking people to work with me, I look for those with a creative background; art and design graduates, those with specific floristry backgrounds (event and wedding floristry, sustainable floristry, those with precise technical floristry skills that one can only attain with years of experience or through accredited learning).

The best people I have worked with in floristry have all been artists and creatives.

Describe a day at work: There is no set routine day ever, there is just so much to do!

Typically, in season, it’s a start at around 6am, which might be watering plants or harvesting flowers from the garden, or could be going to the floral wholesalers in Cork to collect an order from Holland (we buy in flowers too, especially for weddings). It could be catching up on emails, or later in the week, getting the van packed to set up a wedding.

Staff usually arrive on site at 9.30am, and then the day does usually follow a line; copious amounts of coffee while putting together orders, delivering and installing orders at venues or at weddings, organising the studio and cold room, harvesting flowers, tending the plants…

Staff finish at 6pm, I usually ‘finish’ for a couple of hours to make and have dinner with my family, then go back to emails, proposals, and watering for a few more hours.

How many hours do you work a week?

In season, it’s actually ridiculous, six or seven 10 to 15-hour days a week. The season runs from March through September, and it’s non-stop, all systems go at this time. There is no ‘summer holidays’ or ‘time off’.

October and November are quieter, and I work these times alone, there are still weddings and venues to flower, but it’s now a 9 to 5, five-day week.

December is usually a little busier, but not manic like a shop florist, still a 9 to 5, five-day week.

I close throughout January and the start of February, I take a holiday and some time off.

Is your industry male or female-dominated? Female.

Does this affect you in any particular way?

I’m surrounded by women who love flowers. How wonderful is that!?

Is your job stressful? How? Rate it on a scale of 1-10: It can be stressful, but I try to not hold on to parts that consistently make it so.

I try to work to a plan, especially for weddings, and this takes the stress out of it. I am pretty good at delegating; what stresses one person out is fuel to another.

Do you work with others or on your own?

Both. I work alone quite a bit, but I have staff during the season, four days per week. I also hire freelancers for larger weddings, so we have a team, and this is brilliant fun.

When do you plan to retire or give up working?

At the moment, this seems like a faraway dream, but it is something I worry about. The job is very physically demanding with heaving and installing huge flower displays, long hours running around, hauling wheelbarrows of compost.

I am always conscious of injury and wondering how long I will realistically be able to do this.

I’m going to say 65. If it’s here in type, it is more likely to happen. Maybe I’ll just adapt the job a bit to make it suit me better as I get older.

Best bits: When the bride cries because the flowers are so gorgeous (and then we all cry), sneaking into the church/venue to see the reactions, being surrounded by the nicest flowers, the garden in full bloom, being a flower fairy, lunches out on a wedding day while the ceremony is on, getting messages and emails gushing about the flowers, receiving some beautiful pro images of your work, seeing your work published.

Worst bits: storms, the wind playing havoc with an install, the huge downer after a big job.

Advice to those who want your job? Focus on one goal, don’t flit! Commit to it. And invest in yourself; Do the class! Hire the photographer! Buy the nice vase!

Also, I am a member of The Flower Farmers Of Ireland (www.flowerfarmersofireland.ie) which currently has just over 100 Irish flower growers, mostly women, and it’s a brilliant, supportive network, all volunteer run of people with similar businesses and jobs as me. It’s especially helpful to anyone considering setting up, or having recently set up a flower farm or farmer/florist business.