Lauren and Nancy talk about their new floristry shop

Lauren, from Burgess Hill, and Nancy from Shoreham met four years ago at Plumpton College. They studied a floristry course and have been good friends ever since. I asked them when the idea came to start their own business?

"It's actually very, very random," Nancy said. "I just got a message from Lauren about two or three months ago with a link to the shop on the estate agent's website, and she asked me what I thought of this shop? I was a bit like, "It's fine, it's nice, it's a shop.I could see where this was going. Do you want to open a shop?" Lauren said, "Yes, I would like to open a shop!" Nancy said, "And that's just kind of where it went from. We've spent a lot of time in the industry working with different florists, every florist does it differently, and that's nice. We just kind of wanted to have something that was a bit of our own—a bit more chill, a bit more fun, and something that would make us feel excited to come to work." "The choice of the business name was kind of a bit of both of us. We both have our own businesses, freelancing businesses, so we were trying to mix those two names. We needed something more interesting, because we're not only selling flowers, we're also selling small gifts which are handmade by local artists, as well as plants. We wanted the name to be a bit more unique. So we thought the house of design was cool because the design aspect was definitely the florist part." "Our aim is to keep it local and bring the community and everyone together, really.

I asked what type of floristry work do they offer?

"We're a very versatile florist, we do retail, bespoke weddings, events, corporate events and also funerals as well. We're just a mix of everything, really. Anything flower related, we'll do it. We aim to have a different display in the windows for each season, possibly doing an installation piece, just for fun."

The ladies told me they offer a customer loyalty card, and they'd like to move it online as it'll save paper. Other offers including small succulents at £3 each or two for £5, and large succulents at £8 each or two for £14. We've also got some monstera plants at £15 or 2 for £25. Nancy said "We try to create some nice deals. Because of the economy, it is really tough to buy small things you wouldn't normally buy, especially flowers. They're definitely more of a special occasions purchase instead of an everyday purchase for people. We'd like to try and make it as affordable as possible so they can then have it every day if they wanted, which is sort of the goal, I think."

Lauren said "We've also signed up with Too Good To Go. So obviously, if anything there's anything we can't use tomorrow, like three open lilies or roses or anything, we put them on there and sell them at a discounted price. It reduces our wastage and also lets someone else enjoy a nice bunch of flowers before it goes in the bin." She said "Floristry is going in a very sustainable route and it has been for the past two, or three years. Before, there's a lot of traditional florists use a lot of plastic products. They use a lot of products that do not biodegrade, a lot of wastage as well. But nine times out of 10, the generation that's now going into their 20s and 30s, they're not looking for that kind of floristry anymore. They want biodegradable, reusable. They want florists they can trust, that they know that they're getting good products, and locally grown products if we can. Nancy said, "So the brown paper is very traditional for florists and it is biodegradable. It's a recyclable paper, which is why most florists use it. We do also love a more interesting packaging design. I mean, I've always been very inspired by Korean style floristry where they have very beautiful, ornate wrapping, very structural as well.So it's just mixing a bit of that with UK style floristry. So we use different coloured wrappings and different coloured boxes. The wrappings that we use are a new type of wrapping that has only been out for the last year or so I've seen. And that is completely biodegradable. Even the colouring, the dye is biodegradable and it's fine for the planet. We also only use biodegradable cellophane because a lot of cellophane isn't biodegradable. We very rarely will do ribboning for funerals because the ribboning is a very bad microplastic. If somebody really, really wants it, we will, but ideally we wouldn't want to do that.

And we only use glass pots, mainly ceramics, and try to be a bit less plastic orientated.

Lauren and Nancy both come across as warm, friendly, and accomplished professionals offering an exciting new option for floristry in Mid Sussex.

Nancy said the best way for people to contact them was to visit them in the shop or at houseofdesignsflowers.com website; it lists the phone number, location, opening times, and a selection of bouquets they offer. She joked, "Carrier pigeon is also acceptable!"

House of Designs Flowers, is open Monday to Friday, 9am. till 6pm. and then Saturday, 9am. till 5pm. and Sunday, 10am. till 4pm, and can be found at 153 London Road, Burgess Hill.