From her light and airy north-facing florist shop in Lydgate Street in Poundbury, Jessie Copper has as many as sixty different varieties of flowers on sale at any one time.
“We are more like a European florist,” says Jessie who started The Poundbury Florist eight years ago when she was just 26. “You won’t find anything even closely resembling supermarket flowers here.”
Having done a degree in hospitality management, Jessie worked in the tourism industry before switching careers. “I lived in Poundbury and I knew this would be the perfect place for a bespoke florist shop. So I took a diploma in floristry at Kingston Maurward College.”
Since opening, Jessie has won UK Flower Shop of the Year (2011-12) and was awarded ‘Highly Commended’ for Best Wedding Florist in the 2014 UK National Wedding Industry Awards. “We do a lot of weddings, especially in the early summer when peonies are briefly in season. They really are the quintessential English bridal flower. They also tie in really well with the current trend for Bohemian-style weddings.” Think woodland, moss, flower circlets, daisies and fragrant garden roses. “It’s a very eclectic style. When I got married last year (to Ashley Stones, skipper and owner of The Duchy Fisherman company) my bouquet had coral peonies, wired succulents and vintage peach roses. This look is very in now, so I guess I led the trend,” she laughs.
This month, in the two weeks leading up to 29 June, you will find some of Jessie’s bouquets scattered across the Dorchester area. “It’s all part of International Lonely Bouquet Day. We leave bouquets in Dorchester and the surrounding villages for people to find and take home. The idea is to make a stranger smile by giving them some flowers and I think that’s rather lovely.”
