8:00am Wednesday 24th June 2009
A budding Falmouth florist has been named UK amateur flower designer of the year.
Mother of two Joanne Cooper, a former part-time police officer, was selected by a panel from discount store Aldi among hundreds of entries to add a new bouquet to their online floral range with her design Tequila Sunrise.
Her bouquet will be sold online as September’s Bouquet of the Month, after the bright design caught the eye of the judges.
She said: “Winning Aldi’s competition has completely changed my outlook on my career and I will be so proud to see Tequila Sunrise’on the Aldi site in September.
“I am so impressed with Aldi’s bouquets and cannot believe my design will be part of the collection.”
Joanne, 36, had only been arranging flowers for six months and was “delighted” to be named Aldi’s amateur designer.
She has just returned from a complimentary trip to Amsterdam where she and husband Mark were given a personal tour of the impressive flowers markets. She also worked with Aldi’s professional florist to create the final bouquet from her design.
Following the trip she has left her role with the police to pursue a career as a florist.
She added: “The experience of walking around the huge flower markets, chatting to the growers and working with Aldi’s designers to create my design into a real-life bouquet was just incredible. It made me realise how passionate I am about floristry.”
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