Lucky bloom for Market Drayton's Flores Diem as it gets spot in Good Florist Guide
A florist has become only the second in Shropshire to be added to the prestigious Good Florist Guide.
Viv and Phil Payne, owners of Flores Diem in Market Drayton, are celebrating after being added to the exclusive Good Florist Guide – only the second florist in Shropshire to do so.
The guide is a prestigious organisation where florists are invited to join on their merit alone.
Viv and Phil, who live in Wem and have been together since 2015, started out on their floristry venture in Market Drayton in 2019 and got the good news around two weeks ago.
"It has been an exciting and trying few years," Phil said. "So this has been amazing news. We are only the second florist in Shropshire to be in the guide, and there is only around 200 florists across the country in it.
"Some very prestigious businesses are in it including the Queen's personal florist, so it's a big honour."
The couple bought an existing business called Ladybird Florists at the beginning of 2019 and then changed the name and worked hard to make it successful. Things were going really well then lockdown hit.
They still operated where they could and things were going well, but they realised they would need a bigger space for the business.
Luckily, the building next door on Shropshire Street was available, and they moved in there.
"The building is much more what we had envisioned originally, it has that period feel to it," Phil said.
"The people of Drayton and the support we have had over the last 18 months has been fantastic. We have had some really lovely and loyal customers. We have quite a quirky style and they have embraced it.
"Before we met, Viv was doing a floristry course, then we got married three years ago and wanted to start our own venture. We have been blown away by how it's all gone, it's been phenomenal.
"You can only get into the guide on merit, it's criteria is very strict. We are looking forward to whatever it might bring for us. It's a lovely thing to have on the door and the website. We could not have got through it all without the support of the community."
