A Flowerful Statement

Shane Fitzgerald's Carraig flowers has a stand at the RDS Bride of the Year show opposite mine. The stand changes a little every time but the phenomenally high standard of the bouquets and displays never changes. They are superb!

Based in Leixlip - it is no exaggeration to say Shane is a control freak - he is a perfectionist of the highest order – and it shows in his handiwork. In fact it really rose up this time!

An hour before the show opened recently, a bridal bouquet fell about 6 feet, hit the floor slightly damaging some of the inner blooms which were white. The bouquet was up high at the back of the stand and not very prominent but Shane was furious!

He immediately called his shop to make sure there were some fresh stock to repair the bouquet, but was quite happy to consider driving to Newbridge in County Kildare for fresh flowers if necessary. That evening he went home and replaced all the central blooms for the next day - even though no one attending the show would ever see the slightly brown edges on some of the inner blooms because they were at the back of the stand!

As he says himself - it’s alright for other people; but he puts his name to every bouquet he sells. I know how he feels; I put my name to everything too. Also like me, he operates two fixed price packages (like mine!) - which is quite unusual in floral displays.