The Floral Retreat
FIVE DAY FLORISTRY CAREER CHANGE COURSE
May 5th-9th 2025
This is the floristry course that we wish existed when we started. It’s intensive and hands on, it will inspire you to change your career path and equip you with all the skills you need.
Course overview
The Floral Retreat is an intense five day floristry course designed for those who are serious about a new career, be that a sideline or a full jump in.
What makes us different from other flower schools, is that we focus on business strategy as well as the creative and technical processes.
We teach both the art and business of floristry which will equip you with all the skills, knowledge and confidence you need to start your own flower business.
And if all the hands on learning isn’t enough, at the end of the week, you’ll receive a gallery of beautiful photography documenting your work; helping you quickly launch or level up your existing business.
Our past students have gone on to have huge success in the industry. Read our case studies.
Course schedule
It’s five days of practical and creative floristry interwoven with business sessions.
The full schedule is kept under wraps until the first morning of the course, but here is an example schedule:
Monday
Flower conditioning
Seasonality & sustainability
Marketing & branding
Gift bouquets & buttonholes
Tuesday
Flower farm visit
Sourcing & buying flowers
Colour theory
Bridal bouquets
Wednesday
Wreath & garland making, including how to host and cost your own workshops
Wedding timeline & logistics
Pricing & quote writing
Thursday
Foam free table centres
Full tablescape and table styling
Photoshoot
Friday
Large foam free installation work
Portrait photo session
Business planning & marketing strategy
Defining your services & next steps
Some sessions we’ll work together on large scale designs, and other sessions will be spent doing individual work or in small group discussions.
Meet the team
Roberta, The Good Florist has been recently named one of the UK’s leading florists by leading wedding blog The Wed.
Working as a floral designer worldwide, her highly thoughtful approach put people and place firmly at the centre of her work, creating experiences that are designed to create an emotional response and foster connection. Roberta is an experienced and generous mentor with a very open style of teaching.
We will be joined by very special guest photographer John Hersey who will document your work. John’s timeless approach to shooting flowers in natural light will give you a portfolio of work that will help launch your career and give you images with huge value and longevity.
His clients include Liberty, The Duchy of Cornwall & The Observer Magazine.
Location & ethos
The course is held at Roberta’s farm in Devon. It’s an immersive and transformative week spent in beautiful rural surroundings. You will have access to a huge selection of vases and props in the studio.
Food is an important part of the experience and you’ll be cooked for each day by a private chef. Expect fresh, seasonal organic lunches and some really delicious treats along the way.
The Floral Retreat runs only once a year and the content is designed with careful consideration to seasonality and trends.
Many conventional places of learning will give students set flower recipes, but here you’ll have access to the best flowers possible and be encouraged to develop your own style of floristry.
Investment & Photography
As well as a week of tuition, a huge appeal of the course is the opportunity to work with a professional photographer.
All of your work will be curated and photographed to the highest editorial standard.
Work from past courses has been published in blogs and magazines, giving you instant credibility in your marketing.
Visit our photograph archives to see past projects.
The week is carefully planned to give you a huge range of design experience and photography. This high level content will help you quickly establish yourself online, giving you immediate content. You are also encouraged to bring a camera (phone) to start to document your work for Instagram Stories.
What’s included
Five days of tuition
All flowers and floristry materials
Costings template & How to Cost Flowers guide
Porfolio of professional imagery including biography shots
Delicious artisanal lunch and all refreshments
Full access to the farm and studio for foraging, walks, content creation and creative reflection.
Cost
Investment per person is £1,999 plus VAT
Flexible payment plans are available.
Return on your investment within a year is our aim. We’ve seen students with a full diary of bookings in just one season.
If you are travelling from outside of Devon, please let us know. We can advise on travel and accommodation options.
FAQs
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This is a deep dive for those who are committed to a career change. It’s not a hobby course. We cover a huge range of practical skills throughout the week and give you everything you need to launch and succeed in your business.
Of course, you will continue to learn on the job after the course finishes, but we’ve seen students leave us after five days and have a full year of bookings within six months.
The skills we teach are transferrable across all aspects of floristry, and we have trimmed a curriculum down to the need to know aspects of becoming a floral designer.
For instance, we may not cover funeral flowers in depth, but the process of buying and costing flowers (which we do cover in depth), will allow you to work in whatever field you want.
Online courses just don’t give you the hands on experience. Handling flowers we believe is essential.
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This course is great for beginners, especially if you’re ready to jump in.
People are often nervous about their lack of plant and flower knowledge and wonder ‘can I/should I train if I’ve never done any flower arranging before’.
The good news is that it’s not rocket science, and while there are challenges to working with flowers, product knowledge can be slowly gained.
A love of flowers and a curiosity to learn and ask questions is essential.
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If you’re already working with flowers, get in touch about whether this course is right for you.
It may be that you’ve already started, but feel unsure about pricing or marketing and want to develop your portfolio and confidence.
It will provide you with fresh content and help you scale your business. We can look at your customer base together and help you break into a higher client market.
This course will expand your knowledge, push your boundaries in terms of design and help you build on what you’re already doing.
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We start gently on the first morning and then build up to installation work at the end of the week.
The days run 10am - 4.30pm with a stop for lunch and plenty of tea and cake to keep you going.
The schedule is pretty bursting and you’ll go home each night with your head full.
Each day is a blend of theory and practical hands on floristry.
While we aim to cover a lot in five days, the whole experience will inspire, nourish and motivate you.
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The course is based at Roberta’s farm in Mid Devon (EX17 4QE) which is a beautiful peaceful location between Dartmoor and Exmoor.
It’s a tranquil place, ideal for stepping away from usual commitments and allowing a shift and personal growth.
The course will be held in her purpose built studio and locations around the farm.
If you are travelling from out of the area, we can send you accommodation recommendations.
Please contact us for this information.
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We know this is a big investment, and want to give you as much value as we can.
The intensity of the course, the caliber of teaching and the quality of materials we work with means we’re confident this is the best creative floristry course out there.
The portfolio alone (if you were to try to recreate even one of the photoshoots) would cost £1000s.
We want to equip you fully and deliver on the highest level.
We will honour the investment you are making both financially and in terms of your time.
As mentioned above, we have seen students leave the course and have immediate success.
Our aim is to see you get return on your investment within a year.
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Our studio has work bench space for six students, which we think is the ideal number for our teaching group.
It’s small enough to get personalised support and big enough to be able to split into groups and work on bigger design projects together.
We need a minimum number of five people to run the course.
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Yes, of course.
A deposit of £500 is required to reserve your place.
The full balance is then required four weeks before the course. You can either pay this in one sum in early April, or separate into two or three payments.
Please let us know when you book if you would like to split payments.
To book
To chat about the course and to book a discovery call, please contact us below.
“I just wanted to send you a small note to say a really big thank you to you and the rest of the team for last week.
I’m still actually trying to process how incredible it was. I found the whole week so nurturing, inspiring and challenging in the very best way. It’s given me so much clarity that this is right path for me and confidence that I might actually be able to do this!
We talked a bit in the week about turning points in your career and I honestly believe last week was the first key turning point for me and for that I am so grateful.
Thank you for creating such a wonderful space to learn and for being so honest and candid about your experiences too.”