Flower Market customer Roka, owner of mobile florist ‘Roka Brings Flowers’, has been a customer at New Covent Garden Flower Market for the past five years, bringing her distinctive pedal bike to Nine Elms twice a week to purchase stock. Having made the decision to ‘retire’ from the industry while still at the top of the floristry game, Market Quarterly takes a look back with Roka and finds out what’s inspired her love for flowers

“I’ve been a florist for 10 years in total, five years working for others, five years for myself” explains Roka with the signature chatty style that her customers find so endearing.

Speaking from her narrowboat home (currently moored just outside London) Roka explains how she became a business owner almost by accident. “I’ve always been a very creative person and loved flowers, so when I was offered the chance to become a retail florist in Pimlico, I jumped at the chance. I started in Covent Garden, then Dulwich, and I was based in Pimlico when the pandemic struck, and the business was forced to close. The entire industry collapsed because all the restaurants and hotels were shut and there were no events due to the lockdown. I was furloughed along with all my colleagues in March 2020. I loved that place, we’d always crack jokes, I felt appreciated, and we were a good team. But I really missed the creative aspect.

"I had a friend who had this slow fashion company making underwear in Brixton, and she hired me, so I retrained and started to work as a tailor. But when I looked at Instagram and saw other people’s work with flowers, I was very much missing it - I was seeing beautiful bunches and missed the joy of flowers so, in July 2020, I decided to start my own flower business – Roka Brings Flowers.”

The route to Roka’s success

“Being creative is a useful survival skill and I backed myself to be successful as you’ve got to have confidence in what you’re doing,” says Roka. “Other people’s opinions are important, but the most important opinion is the one you have of yourself and your ability. Part of my success is being able to travel and experiment and not being too scared to fail.”

Instead of a shop, Roka chose to sell flowers from a bicycle at Camberwell Green Farmers’ Market, which had luckily stayed open, because it was considered essential. “On my first day I visited the Flower Market really early and spent £70 on flowers,” says Roka, who admits that until that stage, her bosses would do the buying element of the job for her. When she became her own boss she took over purchasing, and had never visited New Covent Garden Market before that day.

Roka’s first day of trading

In a stroke of luck, on her first visit to the Flower Market Roka bumped into a friend who owned flower shops, who introduced her to well-known traders such as Saul (Pratley Flowers and Plants), Dave (DG Wholesale Flowers), Eddie (at Dennis Edwards Flowers), and Darren ‘Mr French’ (at R French and Sons). “I wanted to sell British-grown cut flowers,” says Roka, “and those introductions made it much easier and a less intimidating experience. Eventually, visiting the Flower Market became the best part of my day. I was excited but a little worried too as nobody knew I would be selling flowers at Camberwell, and I wondered if anyone would be interested. At the end of my first day, I’d made a £60 profit! That felt amazing as I’d paid myself a wage.”

Roka started with a regular bicycle that had a small basket. She secured one day (Saturdays) at the Farmers’ Market, one outside a bakery (Fridays), and when the bakery closed she moved to Lower Marsh (Fridays). “It was always a tactic to work around the weekend because people had occasions to buy for,” says Roka. “Adding flowers to the market was a mood changer, lifting people’s spirits up. People would come to buy from me as everyone else was closed, there were no florist shops open, and my customers still had money from the pre-pandemic times.”

Growing the business

A second selling location at the bakery helped Roka quickly establish her business via word of mouth. “I was keeping my expenses low as I didn’t have to pay for storage because I was basically going from the house to the Flower Market, then selling from my two locations,” says Roka. “I invested in tools, a trolley and buckets. The bike came later and cost £300, so in total I’d invested £500 before day one of selling. I broke even within a few weeks and was into profit.”

Roka expanded to Lower Marsh Market, a historic street market near Waterloo station, and her fame grew thanks to interviews with a Channel 4 TV programme called Narrow Escapes and Sunday broadsheet The Observer. By Christmas 2020, business was booming. “It was crazy because I was getting more and more recognised in the community and I was selling Christmas decorations, and Christmas wreaths,” says Roka. “I felt quite established, and I was starting to earn better money.”

Her next idea was to investigate if she could grow her own flowers. “One of my friends introduced me to a neighbour who had one of those big Victorian houses with a very long garden,” says Roka. “The garden was totally wild so I asked the owner ‘hey, could I use your garden to grow some flowers?’ I planted 4,000 tulips and she allowed me to grow flowers for the next four years! I had two months in the spring and then three months in the summer. I was able to still buy my flowers from the Flower Market and combine them with my homegrown flowers from my neighbour’s garden.”

The best part of the day

Roka was now visiting the Flower Market three times a week, and it remained the highlight of her days, as she explains: “New Covent Garden Market is where the creativity starts, when some flowers or colours catch your eye. And then you have to envision what sort of bunches you’ll be selling. The traders would help me by asking what my budget was and talking about what would work because of the weather. I’m selling outdoors, so I need to ask: ‘Is it going to rain?’ If so, then hydrangeas. ‘Is it going to be super sunny?’ Then let’s not risk any soft flowers.

"No matter what the weather, I would wake up at stupid o’clock and cycle in the rain to visit the Flower Market. Then you have this warm welcome - it’s just one of those places where you visit and your mood gets lifted up. And The Garden Café. I want to mention the team! They just look at you and know your order, which is so sweet,” says Roka.

Creating a demand

After several months of trading from multiple locations, Roka decided to ‘train’ her customers to visit her on a specific day and consolidate her operation from just one venue. “When you run a flower shop you purchase flowers which last for at least a week or two for a good reputation” she explains, “and you have lots of walk-in customers visiting across the day. I thought it would be better to just accumulate my customers in one day, at one location. I saved time and kept the expenses low by only buying what I suspected I could sell that day so there was no wastage. I didn’t want any waste as I didn’t have anywhere to keep the flowers for the next day.”

That was by design from the beginning and Roka established a regular buying pattern for her customers, aiming for the goal of every successful trader – lucrative repeat business. “At Camberwell Farmers’ Market there was a time where no matter how much I would bring, it would always sell out,” says Roka. “The first two years were amazing, then in the last year two years I started to see a big difference in how people spent their money, with demand for flowers decreasing.

"I used to have so many regulars queuing up before 10 o’clock for me. And then, suddenly, some of them left the area or moved out of London. Also, there were other regular customers who started to buy from different places, when all the florist shops finally reopened.”

The decision to “retire”

Diminishing trade drove Roka to make the tough decision to call it a day and try her hand at other creative opportunities, as she explains. “Basically, for the past year and a half I’ve been doing Roka Brings Flowers out of nostalgia for the whole concept. I still love meeting the regular faces and going to the Farmers’ Market. But the truth is that I’m retiring and I’m looking forward to trying something new.”

Narrowboat minded

“I work from my narrowboat, which keeps my costs down. I’m currently moored in Essex, but I was previously moored in London. That was great for commuting to the Flower Market, but the canal towpath was just too busy and noisy for me. Now I’ve got the country life, it’s very peaceful and helps me to be creative. Living on the water means that I’m part of nature and I love my current life and it’s such a change to the hectic London life that I used to live. I’m happier in the countryside and it’s the perfect time for me to ‘retire’ from floristry.

"I’ve achieved my goal of setting up and running my own flower business and I’ve gained so much confidence from the experience. It was perfect at the time, and I feel I’ve fulfilled my dream,” Roka says.

Embracing challenges

Despite Roka’s love for New Covent Garden Market and the floristry business, now’s the right time to start a new adventure, she says. “As well as my flower business I have a couple of other things going on, and that’s what I’ve decided to focus on in the future. I’ve got big plans as I’ve been given the gift of a creative frame of mind, so I’ve got to embrace new challenges.

"There might be a time when I do want to return to floristry as I’ve enjoyed it so much. If I do, then New Covent Garden Flower Market will be my first port of call!”