The Entrepreneurs of Uckfield
Lisa Hepburn always dreamed of being a flower girl. By 15 she was working as a trainee florist in a busy flower shop in Morden. She trained in floristry at Southwark College and, after work experience in South London, spent seven years as a florist in Northern Ireland.
She moved back to be near her parents in Uckfield and soon took a deep breath, applied for a bank loan, and bought the Flower Shop. It was 2004 and the beginning of an amazing journey.
Commercial floristry has changed its shape since then as florists have contended with big changes in consumer choice and sourcing. Once the flowers came mostly from local UK growers, now almost all are imported from all over the world. And there are challenges: recession, lockdown, cost of living. “Brexit was a killer. Almost overnight my costs increased by at least 20%, and everything became more difficult”. Plants had to have individual passports, and flowers can no longer be sent across European borders free from taxes, duties, and restrictions. Another challenge came from supermarkets. This simply underlined the value of buying quality flowers. Supermarket flowers may be cheap and quick, but so is their quality and sustainability, evident even when comparing daffodils.
But Lisa is not out to make a fortune, despite the business being robust. Her commitment is driven by the permanent personal pleasures of the flower trade. Her happiness comes from faithful friends and staff. She knows most of her customers. They start young, asking for advice on flowers for a first date, then they return to ask her for flowers for their wedding and then anniversaries.
Flowers, like people, can easily be damaged but given the chance can simply and quickly communicate life’s most vital messages such as love, compassion, partnership, celebration, and commemoration. Which High Street product can do all this?
Lisa is still on her amazing journey. The flower trade may currently be difficult but the Flower Shop, now moved to Holmes Hill near Whitesmith, flourishes by celebrating everyday life in all its elemental variety.
And Uckfield’s flower messenger is not only a shop owner: Lisa has found the time over the past several years to become a professional children’s counsellor and practising physiotherapist. She has three children, having also fostered no less than seven. Her contribution to Uckfield is sustained, perennial and in generous full bloom.