Planting yourself firmly in the flower business

Floristry is blooming with most rural towns boasting one if not two specialist shops. In the past, a few dying bunches of flowers might have graced the local vegetable shop or be found outside a garage. Now, a booming economy means people can afford to express themselves in flowers.

Crumlin College, Dublin, offers a one-year full-time course in floristry and interior landscaping. Aspiring florists should be of Leaving Cert standard and be of an artistic bent with a flair for working with flowers and colours. All applicants are interviewed and floristry teacher Kitty Gallagher says the class of ten students is usually equally divided between mature students and school leavers.

As well as the obvious floristry skills, students do botany, retail selling, computer applications, communications, health and safety and they learn how to set up their own business. In retail display, they do visual merchandising and practical retail display.

In landscaping, they do both interior and exterior work as well as plant identification and plant care. They learn about selecting the correct plants to live with office pollution or drafts. Most shops now sell house plants so they must find out the various plants in order to advise customers. Students also grapple with the basics of plant propagation.

Each year, students work on an area of the college as part of their project work - this year, they are beautifying an enclosed gravelled courtyard with window boxes and containers of plants and trees.

Students spend one day a week on work experience and Gallagher says there is there no difficulty obtaining this. In fact, florists "are crying out for help". While most graduates will find work in florists', one past student is now studying horticulture in the Botanic Gardens.

A number of PLC colleges advertised floristry courses last year but did not run them due to lack of interest. Enquire about related courses - for instance, Colaiste Stiofain Naofa in Cork runs an amenity horticulture PLC and would facilitate students to do their work experience in a florist's shop, according to assistant principal Bernard Brennan. This way, they will gain 40 days practical experience in floristry. He says garden centres, landscapers, green-keepers and producers are finding it very difficult to recruit staff and employers are contacting the college with more vacancies than it can fill.

If you are interested in this or any other PLC course you should apply now. Crumlin College will hold interviews at the end of May. There is no central applications system for PLC courses so you must ring your local VEC or PLC provider to find out courses in your area. There are no tuition fees for PLC courses and students are eligible to apply for means-tested grants.

DIT, in conjunction with the Irish Flowers Council, is offering a one-year day-release course. The key aspect of the course is "floral arranging and presentation for a retail environment" says John McGovern, senior lecturer in retail marketing. The course is geared towards people already working in the industry but will consider applications from aspiring florists. Fees were £365 last year and a £20 exam fee is payable to the Irish Flowers Council.

The course includes book keeping, retail legislation, floral display and presentation, floriculture, plant care, sales and customer care. Applications forms are available from the school office in July and August.