Gina, I worked for a garden centre as their florist and it was very difficult. People who go to garden centres can be put onto two catorgories. The first are the true gardeners, they know what they want and they are only there to buy plants or garden products. The second are those that have nothing better to do in the day, other than to get in their car for a drive and "pop" into garden centres, where they may purchase a house plant or have a nice cup of tea in the tea-room/restaurant.

The other factor that i had was the shop was situated in a large green house and trying to keep flowers looking their best in the heat of summer was a night mare. I had to keep limited stock as the owner was not prepared to put in fridges, which was ok if you were only doing the odd arrangement, but I was doing a lot of wedding work. In the end the owner realised there was not a lot of money to be made from it and I was made redundent.

Having said all that if the venture had been approached in a proper way I think it could have been very successful.

Best of luck Gina but make sure you do everything on your own terms