Bryonia Intro

Hello!

I’m Jenna, a 28 year old florist living in Manchester. I felt like it was finally time to have a bit more space to document my thoughts, feelings, views, learnings and whatever else flies into my mind so I’ve set up this journal. My floristry journey has been varied, filled with plenty of ups (and a few downs), but most of all I can’t believe how much new information is swirling around in my head since I began.

My hopes are that this space can be an additional sounding board, where I can share some of my dreams for the future with you all, but also snippets of my daily life as a self employed studio florist. As this is my first journal entry, it only seems fitting that I lead with an introduction of my path into floristry so far… so here goes!

Trying to look tough in my little docs & denim jacket

Younger years

Baby Jenna wanted nothing more than to grow up super quickly, but certain creative outlets helped slow things down. My childhood loves consisted of binge reading Harry Potter, baking fairy cakes, plus my arts & crafts drawer. Having these outlets was always so important to me, as this allowed a space outside of my usual thoughts and a place to forget everything (also including the time and to eat haha).

Having tactile, beautiful materials to play with was always something I loved, even as a small child. I spent a lot of time outdoors, camping trips were a staple, and the British countryside was my playground. Plus my grandma’s garden was always magical, but more about that later.

Flowering overseas in Australia

Travel & exploring

After finishing my English degree at university, I fell into the marketing industry. Working for digital agencies for the next 6 years, I always felt like something was missing. From the outside it looked like I would be slotting into a creative role, working on branding projects, website designs or visual identities, but the reality of the role was far from it.

I had spent my early twenties wanting to escape reality with lots of trips and job hopping, when eventually I landed a job overseas in Melbourne, Australia. Whilst this career gave me a lot of opportunities, I felt like it was time I started to explore other more creative options, so here comes my intro to the flowering world…

Sitting in a ‘Floristry Career Change’ talk during 2019, I could never have imagined the impact this would eventually have on my life. But I was hooked from that first conversation, and wanted to know more and more. To help me get a better idea of the industry I decided to get some work experience at a variety of florists around the city, including a 24/7 florists on Valentine’s Day! And from that I never looked back, I just needed to find an in, which I started to investigate over in Melbourne.

Of course I’ve got an Australia tee on…

Florist Rookie’s conception

Queue 2020… you know what I’m talking about, the year a global pandemic hits. Following a chaotic return back to the UK and generally crazy year, I eventually found myself back in Manchester with no plan (as it was impossible to make one). All the government funded floristry courses were all pulled, and any work opportunities were none existent with shops closed and weddings postponed, so what now?

After several solid days in bed moping, feeling miserable and sorry for myself, I thought to myself “do you know what, I’m just going to bloody do it”. So I opened a wholesale florist account and spent £200 of my savings on dried flowers. I built a website, I told my friends, and I dipped my feet in to see if I could swim.

Me and Papa building my custom height workbench at the studio

Setting up shop

I’m flying over my first few months of learning and selling flowers, as that’s a whole journal post in itself and fast forwarding to Christmas when things really started to blow up. My teeny tiny shared flat was no longer fit for purpose, and I knew I wanted to add fresh seasonal flowers as soon as they started to bloom, so I’d started to hunt for more space.

Having received multiple 6 month waitlist responses, a studio spot nearby in Salford luckily opened up just as I had begun my search. I went for a tour around and I was sold, as I could immediately envision the next chapter of Florist Rookie unfolding within those walls (once they were no longer teal blue of course!)

The future

I am constantly buzzing with new ideas and dreams for the future. I have plenty of goals and ambitions that I would like to achieve, alongside generally developing my own signature style of floristry, and maybe even a name change, plus a van. But for now, I’m more than happy to finally be able to add fresh Friday Flowers to my website from June.

UPDATED (Jan 2022)- I have now rebranded as Bryonia, and you can read all about my new chapter here.

Keep your eyes on Instagram for the latest updates and to stay in touch with all the flower happenings.

Speak soon,

Jenna x