The best part is...

What do you enjoy most about floral designer work? What do you dislike the most? Is it challenging? Are there many opportunities to learn and advance?

What keeps you at your job?

I have loved flowers my entire life, but accidentally got involved in floral design and am trying to increase my skills. Yes it is challenging, but also rewarding to create something that makes someone happy or gives them a "wow" feeling. I consider flowers a gift from god, and designers should treat their orders as such, so the customer really feels they are receiving a gift when the order is delivered.

In my area, there are too many designers looking for work, or leaving the field because of poor pay or nondesigner bosses who want to use inappropriate flowers for inappropriate situations. Some flowers are more delicate than others and don't hold up well.

Shops continue to close their doors around here. Maybe it's a good thing, to weed out the people who really aren't meant to be florists! Also, rents are very high around here.

I stay at my job because after working in many other types of work, I stumbled into floral design and found something that I feel is special. I made more money in other positions, but never felt good when I went home at the end of the day. Even when I have a super stressed day as a designer, if I feel the designs I've produced are good, then I feel good. Because there are fewer shops, and more designers, I think there is less opportunity to learn and advance. Everyone wants a designer with 15 years experience who will work for nothing but still be loyal to the shopkeeper! I'm wondering if the only way is to go solo.

I was a floral designer for many years. The trouble with the industry there is no money in it. you can get better and better at your craft, but not alot of pay. The one thing that I loved is instant gratification and seeing the look on peoples faces and of course the creativity part of it if you are aloud to do your own thing at times.

Maybe there should be some sort of rating system, where people can rate floral designers and their companies on how well they perform.

Shake some of the bad players out.

Most of my familiarity is with watching competitive Ikebana, which is a completely different kettle of fish. I don't know what's going on most of the time, but the difference between good and mediocre results is pretty self evident.