​The mission of the Pennsylvania Floral Academy is to educate men and women in the field of floristry. My personal goal is to make the school the best in the country. We intend to certify candidates for employment in the floral industry. With an internship program to compliment the basic course we hope our graduates will find fulfilling employment as they desire. The idea if an 8-week internship program spins off my experience with many people I’ve trained over 30-years. As an owner I would have felt more confident to hire someone with a certification and internship experience.
 
The art of display has intrigued me since I was a child. My mother always wanted me to be a set designer. She had her own dancing school for most of my growing up years. Throughout my childhood I was exposed to theatre and dance performances in NYC on a regular basis. Flower shops exude display from windows to shelves to counter displays. The flower shop world is one big display challenge. Some shops are better than others, but display always exists where plants and flowers are sold. I used to moonlight at a local grocery store in my early days, setting up flower displays and making arrangements. I loved it. Display work should be taught to every beginning florist, but this takes time and patience. This will be a primary element in the Pennsylvania Floral Academy curriculum. Students will complete weekly display challenges. After 8-weeks our graduates will have some great new display ideas that will entice new and old customers into any flower shop. 

Our philosophy is, “Why have a showroom if you don’t showoff?” We are going to teach our students how to showoff their design skills on a budget. We intend to prepare candidates for the floral industry, elevate the status of floral education, and help each student develop their own panache (flamboyant confidence of style). 

Applications for the March 2018 semester are being accepted now through February 1st. Click HERE to learn more about our curriculum. 

Let’s back up a bit, I’ll tell you how I got into teaching and learning the craft of being a florist. The small size of my shop gave me free time to read all the florist publications. I expanded my knowledge of design and marketing from these publications. Also, being the manager gave me confidence! One day some ladies came into the shop and asked if we taught floral design, I was floored. I tried to keep the window interesting, but teaching? I stood up a little taller and said “We are considering it. Why don’t you leave your name and number and we’ll get back to you.” So in my usual I can do it mode, I talked to the owner and struck a deal. I would keep the money from teaching and they would make money from the flowers and containers. I put a sign in the window and I was up and running. Now I realized I needed some classes myself. So I started to study flower design, taking as many different classes as I could afford. When a ten-week course at Phipps Conservatory came up I jumped on it. This gave me a strong background in tropical plants and opened me up to the world of plant lore, another passion of mine.
 
Now I was teaching two nights a week and working five days a week. I felt I was ready to take a chance and go into business for myself. I wanted and needed the creative freedom.
 
I bought an existing shop in Leechburg PA. The shop was 13x30 feet. It had a two-door cooler, some metal display shelves and a small work area, but it had a wonderful tin ceiling and great display windows. It was very small but just the right size for me. I named it Leechburg Floral Company. I didn’t know one person in the town. I lived 15 miles away and had really only been living in Pennsylvania for six years. My family was back home in New York City, so I was a real outsider.
 
Enter Annie. Annie was my neighbor who was between jobs and husbands (lol). She said she would be glad to help even though I had no money to pay her at the time. We struck a deal, she lived with my kids and me and we worked at the business together. We had so much fun. Annie kept the books and we used her hatchback car to deliver. On days that were slow we’d sit on the store’s front stoop and dream of better days. During our first Halloween in Leechburg, we decided to have a haunted house, by then we knew the Clines, the funeral director and his wife Evelyn. I got up the nerve to ask him to borrow a coffin for a display in the store. He graciously said “Sure, but you’ll have to pick it up.” We couldn’t fit it in the hatchback so we carried it down Market Street. I’m sure we were the talk of the town! When people came in to the shop, some turned around and left when they saw our dressed up dummy and dry ice around this real casket. Like I said earlier, I wanted creative freedom!
 
Being a florist is about expressing yourself to the world. It’s about having beautiful things around you every day and it’s wonderful to work beside like-minded fellow artists that love plants and flowers as I did and I still do.

Click here to sign up for one of our upcoming classes.