An interview with a florist

Today, I am going to introduce to you a wonderful florist from the town of Joensuu. Her name is Heini Ikonen, and she is the owner of a flower shop in the centre.

I met Heini personally at a master class at her shop last autumn. She was teaching us how to assemble autumn bouquets. In my opinion, the master class was excellent. Heini quickly taught us how to create bouquets correctly and gave advice on what flowers match each other better. I could see it from the very beginning that she was a true professional!

Go visit her shop! It is filled with green plants. It is like you enter a fairytale. From a cold winter into the summer.

During the interview, we talked with Heini about many things: inspiration, work at a flower business, trends... It was a surprise to hear about her interesting path in floristics. All in all, let Heini tell about everything herself!

My name is Heini. I am a florist and an entrepreneur. I have also been the owner of Kukkakauppa Leinikki (the flower shop Leinikki) for almost three years.

My mother has started the shop in 1991, so it is over twenty-seven years old. When I graduated from high school in 2003, I was wondering what to do next. So, I came to the shop to work with my mother and started to study for a florist at the same time. After completing my studies in 2006, I realised that I did not want to work as a florist anymore and entered the University of Applied Sciences to study tourism instead. But after graduating in 2011, I decided to come back to the flower business and returned to the flower shop to help my mother yet again.

When my mother has opened the shop, it was a very difficult time in Finland. All businesses were doing down. My mother had to work really hard to stay afloat. That is why I decided that I would never ever be involved with the flower business. But you know what has happened at the end (laughs).

Happily, no! I am usually starting my day at 8:30 a.m. and trying to finish everything by 5 p.m. However, being an entrepreneur, I am always available to my customers. I do some planning occasionally or think about work-related issues at home. In other words, I am always working.

I would say Instagram is a quite good source of inspiration nowadays. Magazines also have great ideas for the coming trends for the next seasons.

Yes, a lot. Here, in Finland, we make different types of bouquets comparing to other countries. The reason is in more expensive flowers than in the rest of Europe. That's why we do not use so many of them. For example, in Russia, you can get a bigger bouquet for less money.

I think it is going to be the same—a very natural way. People want more air in bouquets like they have been just picked up from the fields. It was a hot trend last year, and I believe it will be the same again. Trends do not change so quickly in floral design. We need more time to change from one trend to another.

For example, I remember that 5 years ago we put much more effort and time to make bouquets. We needed to take care of every flower, put wires inside their stems, tape them. Nowadays, it is different and more natural. Bouquets are built mostly from own stems of flowers.

Yes, of course. For example, excellent winter flowers are very beautiful ranunculuses. Many brides want them for their bouquet during summertime. However, these flowers are not available. Usually, the ranunculus period starts in November and ends in March-April. The rest of the year price for them is enormously high, but their quality is very low.

If you want some special flowers, you should order a bouquet at least a week before. The reason is in shipping time. Usually, I order flowers from the webshop because it has a broad selection of thousands of items. In this case, the flowers ordered on a Thursday arrive only on the next Monday.

The webshop is centralised in the Netherlands. Normally, it works as follows. I place an order into the system. The webshop staff purchases flowers at auctions on my behalf. They also take care of packing and shipping them to Helsinki by sea. Finally, the guys with whom I have a deal fly to the capital and transport the flowers to Joensuu. So, it is not a simple trip for the flowers at all.

And not only from the Netherlands! For example, some varieties of roses can be cut even in Ecuador! People who are in the flower transportation business are professionals and know a lot about cold storage systems. Under such handling, flowers do not use much water and stay alive and fresh for an extremely long time.

Officially I am alone, but my mother has her own company and we work together. I do not have any full-time employees. However, during the high seasons, like Christmas or Mother's day, my very special employee comes to help me.

Moreover, you know that the wedding seasons happen every year from June to September. This is the busiest time for the florist. At the same time, it is a holiday season. I have kids, so I try to have a vacation during the summer. That's why I get help at that time as well.

I think this summer was very special. We had several amazing wedding couples who asked us to decorate their whole venues. Those were great projects.

Furthermore, many companies offered me to decorate their offices with green plants. It is another area where I have an excellent possibility to use my creativity and imagination for full power.

It is very exciting story. The whole process includes several steps. First, I check the condition in offices, for example, light, temperature, humidity. Then I choose plants, that are more suitable for those conditions, and make a decoration plan. Next step is to propose the plan to the company. If the company is satisfied with my proposal, I make decorations and sometimes even take care of the plants afterwards.

Most commonly, my clients order flowers to give as birthday presents or to share condolences. Bridal bouquets and wedding decorations are quite common as well.

Yes, it feels good indeed. This is something I always wanted to do—to work on my own. Of course, as a business owner, I have to work really hard, but I love it. I love my customers. They give me strength in difficult times. I can definitely say that my work makes me truly happy.

In my opinion, the right choice of flowers may amplify a hundred times the impression of an event, especially, of a wedding. It was interesting to talk to Heini and compare the traditions in floristics and the approaches to flowers in Finland and in Russia. I am glad that we are joined together in our pursuit of beauty and elegance.

You can find Heini and her flower shop