The age old question ‘what is a florist’ raised its head on Facebook last month and yet again seemed to be a desperate effort to find a way of saying supermarkets - and anyone who didn’t have a shop - weren’t florists. Which struck me as naïve as well as totally out of tune with what’s happening in the flower industry these days.

The fact that supermarkets hold 64% of market share hasn’t been achieved by doing a totally rubbish job or simply undercutting on prices … they saw a gap in the market and went for it.  And bluntly there are people who operate out of sheds and industrial units that are far better than some bricks and mortar florist shops I know.

Add in the fact that the Oxford Dictionary term for florist is someone who sells and arranges flowers then, like it or not, supermarkets are florists and the location the work or flowers are sold from makes not one jot of difference.  Therefore whilst my roots and heart may be with independent florist shops, these days I have accepted that the word 'florist' can no longer only be defined as people with small independent shops. At the moment anyone involved with flowers on a commercial basis is a florist and as such part of my readership.

And that's why I reckon it would be a far more effective use of time if we could define what makes a good or above average florist… be it the individual or the outlet the product is sold from.  Because then there would be a barometer that industry and consumer could work to rather than lumping everyone under the same single word title.

Would a supermarket cut the mustard?  If they were to fit the criteria I would personally work to then possibly yes.  Can a non-shop based florist be in my Good Florist Guide or a Master Florist?  Again I’d have to say yes.  Because it’s about what the supplier does in terms of customer satisfaction, not where they do it from.  After all, I could be producing the website and magazine on trestle tables in a basement for all you know, but as long as it’s a good read and fit for purpose, does it matter if we have smarty party offices filled with techno wizardry?

Whether we like it not supermarkets and non shop based florists are not going to go away.  But if the objective is to get people to buy more flowers and plants then personally I think we need to get over ourselves about a finite definition for the word florist and instead focus on the fact that some florists (be it places or people) are better to buy from than others and then find a way of getting that message out.  Time to dust down my CPD and accreditation programmes methinks?