From running a high-street flower shop to building a successful studio-based business, Lorna shares the lessons she's learned, the realities of working with flowers and why she believes the future of Irish floristry is looking bright.
"I'm still not sure I'm a florist!"
Ask Lorna from A Room in Bloom in Athlone when she knew she was a florist, and you're unlikely to get the answer you expect.
In fact, she'll probably tell you she's still figuring out what she wants to be when she grows up.
Cheese-making is apparently a possibility!
It's an amusing admission from someone who has been running a floristry business since 2011, but it also tells you quite a lot about Lorna. She's refreshingly down to earth, doesn't take herself too seriously and has a wonderfully practical outlook on an industry she clearly loves.
For Lorna, being a florist isn't necessarily about how many courses you've completed or how long you've been in business. It's about what you can actually do with flowers.
She describes that familiar Saturday afternoon scenario: the week's orders are finished, the buckets are being cleaned, and there isn't a huge amount of stock left.
Then the phone rings.
Someone has forgotten a birthday and desperately needs a bouquet.
You might not have the flowers or colours you'd ideally choose, but somehow you pull together something beautiful.
That's when Lorna believes you know what you're doing.
And we suspect quite a few florists reading this will know exactly what she means.
Knowing when it's time to change
Lorna opened her flower shop in Athlone in 2011, spending eight years trading from a premises in the town centre.
But as the years went by, she began noticing a change.
Her wedding and event work was becoming increasingly important to the business, while customers were changing the way they bought flowers.
Rather than make assumptions, Lorna worked with a business coach who suggested a simple exercise.
For three months, she recorded how customers contacted the business. Were they walking through the door, ordering by telephone, finding her online or coming through referrals?
The results were revealing.
Walk-in customers accounted for the smallest proportion of her business.
It was a turning point.
With her lease ending in October 2019, Lorna made the decision to leave the high street and concentrate on weddings and events.
Like many florists, she found herself working from home, in her case from behind her parents' house, before eventually moving into her current studio.
Today, A Room in Bloom operates as a studio-based floristry business, specialising in weddings and events while continuing to offer flowers and other products through its online retail business, with local delivery and nationwide delivery on selected products.
It's a good reminder that the business model we start with doesn't necessarily have to be the one we stick with.
Sometimes the best business decision is recognising that your customers have changed and being prepared to change with them.
The part of floristry nobody puts on Instagram
We all know the beautiful side of floristry. The gorgeous flowers, stunning installations, wedding mornings and finished bouquets. But Lorna would quite like people to see everything that happens before and after those photographs are taken. The endless sweeping. The buckets. The vases that need washing. And the candle wax.
Especially the candle wax. It's something she feels people entering floristry often underestimate. Working with flowers is physically demanding. There are long days on your feet, heavy lifting, constant movement and a surprising amount of cleaning.
When people approach Lorna about work experience, one of the first things she discusses is whether they understand and can manage the physical demands of the job.
Can they spend eight hours standing? Can they manage more than 10,000 steps in a day? Are they prepared for the lifting and repetitive work?
These are questions worth considering, particularly for anyone looking at floristry as a career change.
Lorna is also conscious of looking after her own body. She takes Pilates classes, works on strengthening her core and uses standing mats in the studio.
After years in the industry, she understands that protecting your back and looking after your physical health aren't optional extras.
They're part of making a career in floristry sustainable.
It's an important conversation, and one we probably don't have often enough.
Good customers, good flowers and a little creative freedom
Of course, there are plenty of things Lorna absolutely loves about being a florist. Weddings and events are a particular favourite. She enjoys the excitement, the preparation and the satisfaction of bringing everything together.
But she also values the everyday orders and the relationships that develop with customers over the years. For Lorna, repeat business is one of the greatest compliments a florist can receive. When people keep coming back, you know you're doing something right.
And her favourite kind of order?
The customer who says, "Whatever you think." No complicated flower lists, no strict colour instructions and no particular demands. Just the freedom to create something beautiful. Lorna loves being trusted to choose the flowers herself, drawing on what she's bought and what she knows will work together. It's a reminder of the value of professional judgement and of giving florists the opportunity to do what they do best.
Why every florist needs florist friends
One of the loveliest parts of our conversation with Lorna was hearing her talk about the friendships she's made in the industry. She mentions Jenny from Flowers by Moira and Sylvia from Bella Botanica, two fellow florists who have become an important part of her support network. The three share a WhatsApp group where they can ask questions, look for advice, share frustrations and help one another out. There's no judgement, no embarrassment about not knowing something and no competition to see who's the better florist. Just three people who understand the industry and have each other's backs. Lorna remembers that when she first started, this kind of openness wasn't always easy to find. Floristry can be an isolated profession, particularly when you're running a business on your own. Having people you can turn to, whether you're struggling with a technique, trying to source something or simply having one of those days, can make an enormous difference. And Lorna has a fairly simple philosophy about it all. We work with beautiful flowers. We create lovely things for people. We get to be part of some of the most important occasions in their lives. There should be room to enjoy it. She believes we can sometimes take ourselves a little too seriously and that being open, sharing knowledge and having a laugh along the way makes the industry a better place to work. It's difficult to argue with that.
Opening doors instead of closing them
When Lorna was preparing to open her business in Athlone, she approached an established local florist to let them know she was setting up. She hadn't asked them for work experience because she felt it wouldn't be fair to learn the workings of a business she would soon be competing with. Their response stayed with her. They appreciated her honesty, but they also believed there was room for more than one florist in a town. Different businesses attract different customers. Styles vary, personalities vary, and customers choose the people and products that suit them.
It's an attitude Lorna would like to see more of. She believes established florists should be willing to offer work experience and give people an opportunity to understand what the profession really involves. She speaks from experience. Before establishing A Room in Bloom, she spent time working with different florists, picking up practical knowledge that she still uses today. One florist in Limerick had a clipboard system that Lorna adopted for her own business. Another taught her techniques for preparing wedding flowers. And beyond the flower arranging itself, she learned how different businesses operated. She saw things she wanted to bring into her own business and others she knew she would do differently. That kind of practical experience is difficult to replace.
Her advice to anyone considering a career in floristry is to get into a working flower shop or studio and experience as much of the job as possible before taking the plunge.
Why education matters, even after years in business
Lorna is a firm believer in continuing to learn. Every year, she makes a point of undertaking some form of course or workshop to develop her skills.
And this is one of the areas where she sees real value in the Institute of Flowers. Having access to international designers and high-quality workshops here in Ireland makes professional development much more accessible.
For sole traders in particular, it's easy to become so caught up in the day-to-day running of a business that further training slips down the priority list. Lorna believes continuing education deserves a place in every florist's working life. But she also sees a bigger opportunity for the industry.
Despite running her business for well over a decade, and having a Bachelor of Arts degree and a postgraduate qualification in business, she points out that she doesn't have a formal floristry qualification. She would love to see a clearly established education pathway for florists in Ireland.
A recognised route that combines practical experience, professional skills and formal learning. And while she jokes that she might be too busy pursuing her cheese-making career to sign up herself, her point is a serious one.
If floristry is to be recognised and valued as a skilled profession, education has an important role to play. It's something the Institute of Flowers is actively working towards through its support for the development of a national floristry apprenticeship.
A place for everyone in Irish floristry
When asked about the future of the industry, Lorna is wonderfully optimistic.
She believes Irish floristry is in a good place and that there's growing confidence among florists to experiment, try new things and connect with one another.
Social media has helped open up the industry, giving florists the opportunity to see what others are doing and encouraging conversations that might not have happened in the past.
She also sees the Institute of Flowers as an important part of that growing community.
For her, it's not simply about workshops or events, valuable as those are.
It's about bringing people together.
Florists from different parts of the country, working in different types of businesses, often discover that they share the same challenges, frustrations and joys.
And the more they talk, the more they can learn from one another.
Lorna was particularly impressed by what she saw of the Institute of Flowers' work at Bloom this year. Although she couldn't attend herself, she followed the event through social media and appreciated the enormous amount of work involved.
It reinforced her belief in what can be achieved when the industry comes together.
So, what makes a florist?
We started our conversation with Lorna wondering whether she could really call herself a florist.
By the end, we were left thinking that perhaps her answer says more about the profession than she realises.
Because being a florist isn't just about knowing flower names or creating a beautiful arrangement.
It's about problem-solving, understanding your customers, adapting your business, learning from other people and occasionally producing something wonderful from the last few stems in a bucket.
It's also about hard work, friendship, a sense of humour and knowing when to wash another vase.
Lorna's story reflects so much of what we want to encourage within the Institute of Flowers: businesses that are willing to evolve, professionals who keep learning and a community that supports one another rather than working in isolation.
And perhaps most importantly, remembering to enjoy the work along the way.
Our thanks to Lorna from A Room in Bloom in Athlone for sharing her experiences, her perspective and her wonderfully honest approach to life in floristry.
You can watch our full conversation with Lorna on the Institute of Flowers YouTube channel.
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