When you get ill as a florist

The gross BTS

Being sick when you're self-employed utterly sucks.

Ten days ago I got food poisoning. It was the first time I had gotten properly sick since starting my business. Thank goodness I had decided to opt out of Valentine's Day, otherwise I would have been in over my head with red roses, thorns and vomit. My petulance for all things valentines finally paid.

Perhaps unwisely I went through with a wedding enquiry call a couple days after the sickness passed. I'd eaten one slice of toast for the entire day and my skin was literally grey. I piled on the make up and dimmed the lights in the studio before I logged onto zoom. Not sure how, but I made it through the call and then slept for 13 hours straight afterwards.

When the illness hit I had some leftover fresh flowers in the studio. It was an absolute gutter to watch them just wilt and die on the workbench. They were odds and ends, some bits had had their stems completely cut off. None of them were suitable to sell, even if I had the energy, the stomach or headspace, but watching flowers go unused is the equivalent of me just dumping my own money into the bin. There were two lovely headdresses I had planned on making with them. The joy of flowers is their fleeting beauty, but it’s also a pain in the arse.

It's only today (Wednesday 19 February) that I've managed to catch up on all emails and admin. Seeing the emails come in and not posting all of the content I had painstakingly planned in my calendar was tough. When I tried to sit at my desk I just couldn’t focus.

I'm lucky to have a good network of floristry pals across the central belt of Scotland. We have all agreed to cover each other if we were to get too sick to see through a wedding or event. I've never needed to call on anyone but it's reassuring to have a contingency plan.

There's no such back up with the actually running of my business and all the pesky admin. At least no one's big day is ruined if I'm a little late replying to some emails.

The one thing I really didn’t want to let slide was my weekly letter to you. I re-sent an old floral essay instead of finishing the essay I had intended to write. It felt disappointing at the time, but in hindsight I’m just relieved I got something sent out.

I've had a flurry of new subscribers to my weekly letters which was a very welcome mood boost during the last week! Apologies if you subscribed wanting just pretty pictures of flowers. I like to share the very honest truth of what being a self employed florist is like.

With love and good health,

P.S. The latest episode of my podcast Flowers & Folklore is coming soon. You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts and lots of other places.