totally florist focussed. I called a few of my friends, got the support of Interflora and Teleflorist as well as Flowers Publicity Council (the original F&PA) and BFA - who held their conference alongside it and hosted a business focussed conference. “We added in demonstrations
by the Americans and British florists and competitions. It was mad, it didn’t make money but it was fun. And when the UK florists said, ‘great time, what are the dates for next year?’ I knew Florist Event was born.” By this time Caroline had
joined the publishing side of the business and taken on the day- to-day running of the magazine so when Marcus decided to join ‘the firm’ in 1978 it was logical for him to take over the exhibition side, a move that created the exit route Jayne wanted. “We worked together well and
I loved running the company but the kids were more than capable… they’d been doing a brilliant job. So, as I sat at the team dinner at SFE ‘92, I decided it was time for me to back out and really let them have their head. I couldn’t have had a better exit route if I’d planned it.” And so it was, at a private
dinner for the house team... by then nearly 30 people were involved behind the scenes… Jayne, totally unexpectedly to her children, stood up and announced her immediate retirement. There was stunned silence.
This was the woman who had as happily swept floors as schmoosed clients, said it how it was in print even if it lost her friends and in many ways bullied and cajoled, either with utter charm - or blunt talk if charm failed - the industry into new thought processes. She was probably the most influential person in the industry and she was retiring!
72 F&wb Spring 2013
“All the customers were in the shop for a good reason, be it happiness, love, joy or sadness. It made me realise how lucky I was to work with a product that meant so much to people.”
“Yes retiring, but on a high
note. Carrie and Marcus were the new faces of the company and it was right for them to be seen as such. So I said it was now all theirs, how proud I was of them and wished them well for the future. Then I sat down, had another drink, turned to Derek and said ‘what will we do now darling!!’” What she did was travel more,
spend time on the boat, tidied the house interminably - like her daughter she kept everything! - gardened because plants were still her first love – and observed the industry from a remove. “Obviously the industry has
changed a lot since I started. Not least the amount of competition. But actually that doesn’t worry me too much based on the criticisms I hear from my friends about supermarket deliveries – like lost or damaged boxes, late deliveries, poor flowers. I don’t think they should be viewed as a major threat as long as florists keep up standards - and not just on service or flower quality. “I sound like an angry old woman but I do think skill standards have slipped and that perhaps there isn’t the same pride in floristry as there was. A lot probably has to do with the fact that technically, younger florists just don’t do the type of work we did. In my day mossing was an art, pipping a hyacinth was the norm and gutta perching stems par for the course. Now hand-tieds rule, and sadly not very well. I got one the other day which was literally stuck together, stem by stem, with Sellotape! Dreadful, quite dreadful.” But while she harrumphed over standards almost to the
end of her life and, in bedside conversations with Caroline, still believed quality was the only way forward she was inordinately proud and passionate about her industry and would have done it all over again. “I’ve loved every minute of
it. I can’t spell parcel to this day and I don’t give a toss. Yes there have been some tough times, physically, emotionally and financially. But every stage of my life has been wonderful and if I were 40 years younger I’d be telling you, darling daughter, to move aside, Mum’s back!” And the one biggest thing
that made it so wonderful? “The interaction with an industry I loved and being able to help, be it through the magazine or the shows. It’s always been a two way thing and I really responded to the support of the industry.” Paying tribute to their mother,
her children said: “Jayne was an amazing woman and a hard act to follow. Tough and determined, she instilled a work ethic in us that always encouraged us to have a go, and have another go if it went wrong. So while she may have been proud of us we were... and still are... just as proud of her. Because having seen her
‘behind the scenes’ we know just how hard she pushed herself to help the industry she loved so much. For us, inspiration to do a good job doesn’t come much better than that and we thank her for giving us the chance to carry on where she left off.”
Jayne Foster
Born 27.05.1931 Died 19.12.2012
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