Tools of the Trade: A Florist’s Essentials

When it comes to creating showstopping arrangements, your tools and accessories will be your secret weapons. A well-set-out workspace can make all the difference between a beautifully designed, thought-out arrangement, and a haphazard, messy one. Let’s get into exactly what every florist needs in their workspace for success.

A floristry workbench

To get started, we need to make sure we’ve got a designated place to work. We recommend finding a workbench that’s approximately 90cm in height. Kitchen and laundry benches are usually a good place to start looking, as these benches will usually come with a large in-built sink area which is perfect for filling up your vases and buckets. They’re also quite spacious and given that we recommend having about one metre of space to arrange on, this is a big tick.

Another advantage to kitchen/laundry benches is that they’re purpose-made to deal with spills and water. Whatever type of bench you choose, make sure that the table part is equipped to deal with water and can be easily cleaned. This is why we don’t recommend arranging flowers on your dining table––it’s likely to get nicks and water damage!

Don’t be afraid to look around for custom options either––at the Bloom Studio we used beautiful, wooden Ikea table tops and had the legs custom fitted to make them the correct height. We also had wheels added for movability. Add a thick coat of gloss on top to protect the wood from scratches and water damage, and you’ve got a sturdy, custom floristry bench.

A florist’s toolkit

First and foremost, make sure you’ve got your trusty, highly absorbent hand towel close by for mopping up any spills as well as keeping your hands dry.

You’ll also need:

Pair of protective gloves – important for making sure you don’t get nicked and for removing any leaves on flower stems
Flower cutting snips – ideal for cutting softer flower material
Secateurs – for cutting hard-stemmed foliage and sticks
Apron – for protecting your clothes from any splashes or dirt, as well as providing a handy pocket to keep your tools in
Parafilm floral tape – for wiring and taping
Snips sharpener – to keep your snips nice and sharp
Wire – we recommend having a variety of sizes

Sharp snips are an indispensable tool for floristry, keep a few pairs for home, the studio and maybe in your car for any foraging finds. Just be mindful of putting your snips in safe areas, not on the edges of benches where they might fall off. Never place them into your pockets either, we recommend a good quality leather tool belt.

Preservatives

The aim of preservatives is to prevent the growth of bacteria. You may add a flower preservative to the container holding your flowers, just keep in mind that a little goes a long way, as they’re heavily concentrated products. Look into the different flower preservatives and what they are commonly used for. There are also preservatives specifically designed for certain flowers, or even natural alternatives to preservatives such as combining citric acid or white vinegar with sugar.

Unfortunately, preservatives can speed up maturation, so if you’re keeping your vases/vessels clean and changing the water every day, you don’t need to use preservatives.

Proper Waste Disposal

It’s important that floral material is disposed of properly. All green waste material can be put into a central green waste bin. There are companies out there that compost green material and some local councils also have green waste bins that they collect.

Contamination of green bins is something that you will need to be careful of, especially as some companies will charge if they find foreign material in the bin. Contamination can be something as little as a few bits of plastic wrap or some rubber bands.

With wired work, it’s easy for small bits of wire and parafilm to make their way into the bin, so to be on the safe side, it’s best to work into a general waste bin. Also, any material that has been in floral foam needs to go into the general waste. This is because flowers pick up the foam, which is a microplastic, contaminating the green waste.

When sweeping and using a dust pan to clean up, all that waste should go into the general bin as non-natural materials may be picked up and will contaminate the green waste.

Feeling a little more ready to take on the floristry industry? Before you dive into business, make sure to check out our online course, Bloom in Business. It’s a self-paced course that will teach you everything you need to know about starting out in the industry, and setting yourself up for success! Sign up for your free 30 min intro session here.

Every successful florist needs the right tools for the job.

Florists are constantly arranging flowers, trimming stems, stripping thorns and all sorts of other tasks that the job requires. It’s not difficult to do this well, providing you have the right tools at your disposal.

These are our 8 must-have tools for every florist.

Snips

While garden snips are similar in appearance to your stock standard pair of scissors, snips come with a special spring that makes the repeated cutting motion a whole lot easier. Snips are not as powerful as secateurs; they’re used for trimming off wilting foliage and softer plant material. Snips can also be used for cutting florist tape, ribbons, wire, or other soft materials used for packaging flower arrangements. They’re your sturdy, all-round pair of gardening scissors essentially.

Secateurs

Sometimes known as pruning shears or hand pruners, secateurs are meant for pruning and cutting heavier plant material, such as heavy foliage or branches. The most common types of secateurs are Bypass or Anvil. Bypass types feature a fixed blade that the cutting blade slides past, minimising stem bruising. Anvil types have one blade that cuts onto a flat surface, minimising stem twisting. It’s a good idea to have both types in your floristry toolkit.

Floral Knife

Floral knives are small, hand-sized blades that allow for a sharp, clean cut, resulting in very little damage to the flower. These work best by holding the flower stem in one hand and the knife in your other hand, pulling away from yourself to cut. However, all florists are different, so it’s best to find a knife that fits well in your hand and try it out to find the technique that works best for you. Not all florists use knives, many opting for the safety of snips.

Hand towel

Hand towels are used to keep your bench dry just as much as your hands. The last thing you want to do is spoil beautiful wrapping paper by wrapping your bouquets and bunches on wet bench tops. Whilst arranging flowers your bench usually gets very wet. So a separate towel or towels to keep them dry is essential plus a separate one for your hands.

Floral Tape

Floral tape is pressure sensitive, non-sticky tape that sticks to itself when stretched. It is used for wrapping stems and lining the inside of your vases. While it comes in all sorts of colours, the green tape is particularly useful for disguising stems in a clear vase. It is also very handy for covering wires that help to hold your arrangement in place, or even binding the wires to the flower stems.

Florist Wire

Florist wire is a handy material to have when you’re trying to arrange your flowers in a certain way. It comes in different gauge types, which are important to keep in mind when deciding which to use. A higher gauge means the wire will be thinner and more flexible, while a lower gauge wire will be thicker and provide more support, with less flexibility. We recommend having .5, .7, and .9 gauge wires on hand.

Gloves

While gloves can make more precise movements a little trickier, we always recommend wearing them when handling your floral materials. Not only are you protected from a slip of your secateurs or a thorn prick, but also any harmful pesticides that may still be on your flowers.

Now, we know the world of floristry tools can be a little intimidating––where do you buy from? Which brands are the best quality? What will best suit my needs?

This is why we’ve put together a few tool starter packs, so you can grab everything you need in one go, whether you’re a total beginner or you’re looking to flesh out your current collection.

Any questions around floristry tools? Get in touch! We’d love to point you in the right direction.

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tools of the trade: a florist’s essentials