place without her but I - and my brother Marcus who used to run SFE - wouldn’t have had the chance to carry on her aim. To help fl orists be more successful. And that’s why I am re-running an interview I did with her back in 2006 to say:


Thank you Ma - you did us… and the industry… proud.


“Did I want to be a fl orist? No


landscape gardener and owner of one of the UK’s fi rst garden centres, which still trades in London SW14… just fi ve minutes from where the offi ces of Florist magazine stand. Her love of nature initially


8


encouraged her to consider a career in horticulture. However, well brought up gals in the 1940’s didn’t do that, so she enrolled on a Constance Spry fl oristry course and the rest, as they say, was history. Because ‘she’ was Jayne


Foster. Not only a woman who was featured as the youngest shop owner on the cover of this magazine in 1951 but the woman who went on to buy the magazine nearly 47 years ago, created Spring Florist Event some 30 years ago and in her time launched more new initiatives and designers into the industry than anyone else. Back in December she died in


her daughter’s arms after a feisty battle with cancer. In this new look version of her magazine we pay tribute to a lady who was known as The Duchess on Covent Garden Market and Mummy to me. Because having grown up


with her and seen what she did, I reckon not only would the industry have been a poorer


1 years ago a baby girl entered the world. An only child, she spent a lot of time with her father, a


I wanted to be a horticulturist. I’d grown up helping my father… during the war I became a dab hand at pricking out tomatoes because we had to use his land for food production… but in my day girls didn’t do that sort of thing! So I enrolled on a Constance Spry fl oristry course.” But while she may have been


whizzo with tomatoes, she was even better at fl oristry. And not only did she love the world of design but her ability, and willingness to graft, made the great Constance Spry herself take her under her wing. “Working with Constance was an experience I wouldn’t have missed for the world. I worked with a product I loved and it gave me an introduction into a world of using fl owers in places and for people whom I would never have met otherwise.” Not that it was always easy.


“I remember doing a job at the American Embassy and being met by their butler. I’d had a fairly good upbringing but coming face to face with this stern upright man, who obviously thought fl orists were the lowest of the low, was a touch daunting!” As was the time she came face to face with the Queen… in the loo.


“I used to do all the offi cial


fl owers for the Daily Mail at the Ideal Home Exhibition, which included the private facilities for Her Majesty. I’d just fi nished the design in the loo… there had to be fl owers everywhere… and as I walked out, she walked in. I automatically went into a full court curtsey… an interesting manoeuvre when you’re holding a bucket of fl owers and scissors!” Fortunately though she had


the full support of her husband Derek, the man who was the rock in her life, and who would often be called on to step into the breach when needed. However, while she had no


formal business training Jayne never let lack of knowledge get in the way of trying new things. Like the opening of her own shop, Jayne’s in Sheen. “It seemed the logical step. Dad gave me £50 which covered the rent and the fi rst week’s fl owers. I didn’t have a business plan, just felt it would work.” Work it did. “I loved running a


shop. Trudi, an ex-Land Girl, was my assistant and between us we did work for both local and central London clients. I even remember delivering to Lonsdale Road, SW14 where Caroline now lives!” And Jayne was ahead of her


time even then. “In 1951 we didn’t have hand-tieds, and outside displays were reserved for greengrocers. But at the peaks, which were just beginning to become commercial, I could see the merit in having something outside. Dad made me a display unit and we had ‘ready to go’ designs which worked really well. The quality fl ower was inside but customers


“Back in the 50’s most fl orists pulled the blinds down when they closed... we made sure our windows were always lit up, day and night.”


F&wb Spring 2013


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