If you have an eye for colors and patterns, you might want to gain the career skills necessary to work as a florist. Florists often work in their own shops, grocery stores, and other retail settings (including online) to create beautiful flower arrangements for all kinds of occasions. Floral design does not require formal education in the field, but a certificate is often desirable. To improve your skills, online florist training courses can provide an entry point for this occupation.
Floral Design and Other Career Skills
Are you known for your ability to put things together in a way that pleases the eye? Florists need to have a sense of what colors, textures, and shapes will look good together in a flower arrangement. Visual-spatial understanding and attention to detail are necessary skills, as are good communication skills. The florist may be putting together a single bouquet or may be designing decorations for a large event such as a wedding. As a florist, you should be skilled at understanding your customers' wishes, and making sure that they are satisfied with the result.
Some florists receive orders online and send out arrangements to customers based on written requests or telephone orders. Floral design is a hands-on activity that requires good manual dexterity. Although the field is somewhat dependent on a good economy, there should continue to be a need for people with floral design talent.
Career Advice for Budding Florists
Floral design is usually learned on the job under supervision of an experienced florist. While there isn't a specific education required for this career, a certificate can be helpful as you seek employment. Online florist training courses can help you retrain by providing a foundation to improve your skills in floral design. If you like creating things of beauty, perhaps floral design is a good career match for you.
- Coursework for certification and degree programs: Floral arrangement, botany, horticulture, chemistry, soil, and business management
- Three major types of floristry: Ikebana, English Garden, and High Style
- New trends in floristry: Genetically altering plants, computer controlled growing conditions, artificial climate control, and the use of preservatives and new plant foods
- Where florists work: Floral shops, hotels, event management companies, and department stores or for Internet florists. Around 26% florists or floral designers were self employed in 2012.
- Common online education coursework: Basic skills and terminology, principles of design, basic design techniques, as well as various specialty design technique courses for events such as weddings and funerals
- Number of floral designers nationwide: Approximately 62,400 in 2012
- Median Annual Salary: In May 2013 Florists earned a median annual wage of $26,100 with top 10% making more than $37,210.