Trainee profile: Ally

Ally has an unquenchable thirst for learning – her ambition is to be a qualified horticulturalist. During 2023 she achieved her City & Guilds level 1 award in practical horticulture skills, closely followed by her level 1 certificate. This year Ally is on track to achieve her level 1 diploma!

In between mastering her horticulture skills, Ally works on packing our Abel & Cole orders and sometimes assists the floristry team, cutting stems for orders, conditioning flowers and creating small arrangements. Ally worked alongside florist Lou to create the ethereal dried flower cloud in our training room and in the summer of 2023 she created bottle arrangements for our flower festival at Acton Court.

Ally says, “My ambition is to pass all my City & Guilds levels 1 & 2 and to progress on to the RHS and try that, and to be a horticulturalist. I’m looking forward to more work on the floristry side, willow weaving, more in-depth horticulture knowledge – what makes plants how they are. For example, why are helichrysum petals crunchy? My favourite thing about Organic Blooms is the people and the flowers. I’m very happy in what I’ve achieved here.”