Blooming busy
People might not realise it, but this job can be dirty, very hard and physical. There's a lot of pushing trolleys, sweeping up and cleaning, and we're forever up and down ladders tying garlands around columns. And we walk miles each day, too. Luckily, I swim and play badminton, so I'm quite fit anyway.
I take the Tube from where I live in Acton, west London. I'm up at 6.30am, buy a cappuccino on my way in and arrive between 8am and 8.30am. I like reading and do this on the train.
The day always begins with a big delivery from Covent Garden, where our agent does all the buying. The Netherlands is the biggest supplier but we also have a lot of flowers from England and more unusual countries such as Kenya and Colombia. The boxes arrive outside our door and we unpack and condition them, which involves details such as cutting stems and putting them in cold water.
Royal functions
At 10am we all get together for a coffee and chat about who's going to do what. We have a lot of high-profile functions here, including those with members of the Royal Family. For those events, we usually have to make bouquets.
The most unusual table displays I've worked on were for a christening. That meant floral displays of Pooh Bear on each table. It took us weeks to do. Floristry can be very time-consuming.
There are always so many functions for lunchtime so we have to rush and make sure that everything is in place by 11.30am. I usually eat something light for my own lunch, for about half-an-hour at any time between noon and 2.30pm. Otherwise, doing flowers for the guest rooms and suites takes us all day by the time we've made up and delivered them.
Once a guest checks out, we remove the flowers and reuse them in one of the public-area displays. Each new guest gets fresh flowers. We work very closely with housekeeping and there are, of course, lots of special orders from individual guests.
The most popular order is for red roses, and sometimes we are asked to go in and scatter these across the bed and floor or leave a huge bunch of white lilies.
From about 3pm to 5pm I'm often at a church, helping to decorate it for a wedding. This is a big part of the job, and the most rewarding side of it is when a bride or a bride's mother writes later to say how we helped make their day special. That's so nice.
By 5.30pm I'll be doing a little bit of paperwork, packing up, cleaning the shop or dealing with last-minute requests from the hotel. By 6pm I'll be off to flake out on the sofa, and in bed by 10.30pm. Working with flowers is a wonderful feeling but it still leaves you exhausted.
Interview by David Tarpey
