Professional Floristry Training through Floral Cohorts
Level up your passion for flowers & become a successful florist:
- Learn sustainable floral mechanics (no foam!)
- Find community
- Gain a deep understanding of seasonality
- Tap into a supportive small group learning environment
- Master profitable pricing
- Build your portfolio
- Access wholesale flowers & get a professional tool kit
Hands-on professional training in sustainable floristry is hard to come by. In 2019, Love ‘n Fresh Flowers launched a Floral Cohort program to fill that need. This small-group learning experience brings together 10 cohort members each year to complete a six-month program. During this time, each cohort builds strong bonds and expands their skill set. Every facet of the floral industry is touched upon through demonstrations, business coaching, thoughtful group discussions, field trips, journaling, worksheets, and hours of hands-on practice.
Floral Cohort members have a serious interest in making floristry their career. Floral professionals with a couple years under their belt also find the program helpful for refining their vision, mastering profitability, and building community.
The 10 cohort members become peers; flower friends for life we hope! They will be your support network that steers your floral endeavors to success. About half of the alumni of the Floral Cohort program have gone on to run their own thriving florist business. The other half work as employees in florist shops or as event freelancers in high demand.
Yes, there are plenty of ways to learn much about floristry online! But those online options do not provide you with face-to-face friendships and peer-to-peer support that will last long after the course work is done! Floral Cohorts are about far more than just flowers. They are about holding space for one another; for fighting the good fight together to spread more beauty throughout the world in a way that allows you to thrive on a personal level as well.
What Cohort Members Are Saying
“The Love’n Fresh Flowers cohort was the best investment I have made in my career. The skills and techniques I learned from Jennie as well as the community I built through it has taken my business and designs to the next level in every way. I am now able to finally charge correctly for my work and have the skills to offer an even more quality product to my clients. Her emphasis on respecting the land through her mechanics and sourcing resonates so deeply with me and is not something you find in most floral design education courses. The cohort goes so far beyond what a workshop can offer and the schedule works so well for florists. I am forever grateful for what I have learned from the cohort. It is not just me who has had this experience; I have seen the changes and growth in others who I have encouraged to take the cohort. What Jennie has to share is going to change your career for the better and her generous sharing of knowledge is a gift so far beyond what I can describe.” – Grace, Flower Clvb, 2022 Cohort
“When I was trying to piece together an education within the world of flowers, I felt like all the formal certification programs I was finding weren’t teaching within the design styles or sustainable, local ethos I wanted to embrace as a new designer. Finding the Love ‘n Fresh Flowers Floral Cohort was exactly what I was looking for. I was not only able to get a masterclass in design with each session, but also felt supported through learning how to build myself a business within the flower industry that would set myself up for success when it came to things like setting pricing, creating recipes, sourcing products and managing client relationships. It felt special being able to connect with a community of other designers who were at varying points in their flower stories to be able to learn from each other as we gained new skills and experiences both during cohort sessions and as we explored our own paths outside the cohort. We’ve stayed in touch after the cohort ended and I find myself crossing paths with many of them on the freelancer circuit. It’s such a privilege to not only get to learn from Jennie, but also get to work with the product grown at Love ‘n Fresh both during the cohort and then after as a customer of the Philadelphia Floral Guild. Forever grateful my flower journey started on such solid ground (…there’s a soil joke in there somewhere, something Jennie can also give you a masterclass on!)” – Cara, South Stems, 2021 Cohort
How It Works
The Floral Cohort is an annual program. The application window each year is open from March 1st through March 10th. Not everyone who submits an application will be invited to join the Cohort. After you submit the application online, you’ll get a personal note letting you know the status of your application in a few days once we’ve had a chance to review it. Those invited to the Cohort will be able to register for one of the 10 spots available on a first-come-first-serve basis on March 15th. There are only 10 spots in each Cohort. Once it fills, the next opportunity will not be until the Spring of 2026.
The upcoming 2025 Floral Cohort will begin their education process in May and will continue through October. Members of the cohort will be expected to complete over 30 hours of hands-on learning at our farm and on a field trip. Members will also be expected to complete a few practice assignments outside of class time. Most cohort sessions this year will be on select Thursdays. Sessions are 6-8 hours in length.
Anyone is welcome to apply. However, Cohort members must be able to travel to Philadelphia for all the in-person training sessions AND must have taken at least two floral workshops with Love ‘n Fresh Flowers before applying. Truly beginner flower lovers should take a few of our singular Floral Fundamentals workshops to start prior to applying for the Floral Cohort program.
On-Farm Floral Learning
The format of the in-person, hands-on classes at our farm will be streamlined and straightforward. These are not fancy luxury workshops (though there will be heaps of our farm’s gorgeous flowers, of course). These are down-and-dirty, figure-this-shit-out, chin-up-when-getting-critiqued sessions. You’re paying us to make you successful as a floral professional. We are going to take our job seriously! The in-person sessions will typically run from 11AM to 4PM once a month on select Fridays or Mondays, May through October. We understand that some members of the Cohort are likely to have full time jobs. We are hopeful that taking a few vacation days from your job to pursue your dreams will be worth the extra effort!
