Design bouquets, weddings and funeral flowers. Quick to start, low pay unless you own the shop or do events.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Experienced designer
$36,000
Starting, near minimum wage
$31,000
Senior designer or shop owner
$60,000
Job Bank's national median is $17.31 an hour, about $36,000 a year full time. Job Bank groups florists with retail sales staff, so the median leans low. Alberta's government career site puts the average floral designer at about $24 an hour. Shop owners and wedding florists can earn more, with more risk.
$15 to $18 an hour
Junior designer or shop assistant
Most first jobs start at or just above minimum wage. Grocery chain floral counters are often unionized and pay a bit more. Big-city wedding studios pay the most but hire on portfolio.
Up to $28.85 an hour
Job Bank's top end, about $60,000 a year
A wedding can bring in thousands of dollars in flowers. Florists who run their own studio or shop keep that margin, but they also carry rent, staff and flowers that die in three days.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is zero because most florists learned in a shop rather than a classroom, and the shop supplies the knife, shears and wire cutters you use on the job. The high end is a college certificate, for example about five thousand seven hundred dollars at the University of the Fraser Valley, plus a one hundred fifty five dollar tool kit and around two hundred eighty dollars in textbooks. A short private program such as the three week course at the Canadian Institute of Floral Design in Toronto sits in the middle at about four thousand five hundred dollars including flowers and materials. This is one of the cheapest careers on this site to enter, and the pay reflects that.
This is one of the cheapest careers on this site to enter. Most florists learned in a shop, not a classroom.
Small shops
Usually no pension or health plan. You are a retail employee.
Grocery chain floral departments
Union rates, benefits and a schedule, but less creative freedom.
Staff discount on flowers
Own business
You set the prices and the hours. No benefits unless you buy them.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
There is no licence and no required school. Skill and a portfolio get you hired.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Art and business courses help. Get a part-time job at a flower shop or grocery floral counter now, even just processing stems.
Learn the basics
3 weeks to 10 months
Either on the job, or a short program: 3 weeks at the Canadian Institute of Floral Design in Toronto, 8 months at Seneca, or 10 months part time at the University of the Fraser Valley. Seneca includes about 200 hours of work placement.
Junior designer
1 to 2 years
Conditioning flowers, wrapping bouquets, taking orders, deliveries. You learn the seasonal rush: Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Christmas, wedding season.
Designer, then senior designer or owner
3 years and up
Weddings, funerals and corporate work. Some open a studio, some go into wholesale or event design.
Visual arts
Colour, shape and composition are the whole job.
Business or marketing
Most florists end up quoting, pricing and selling.
Biology
Knowing why flowers wilt keeps your stock alive longer.
English
You will talk to nervous brides and grieving families.
No province licenses florists. Anyone can call themselves a floral designer and open a shop. Job Bank lists no regulator for the job, and Alberta's career site describes it as unregulated. That makes it easy to start and hard to stand out, which is why a photo portfolio of your own work matters more than any certificate.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Wedding and event design
Big budgets, big installations, weekend work. The most profitable branch.
Sympathy and funeral work
Steady year-round demand from funeral homes.
Wholesale and buying
Working for a flower importer or auction, more regular hours.
Teaching workshops
Evening classes and corporate team events pay well per hour.
A photo portfolio
Instagram is the florist's resume. Photograph everything you make.
Driver's licence
Deliveries are part of nearly every shop job.
Retail or customer service experience
Shops hire people who can sell.
Design competitions
Provincial florist associations run them. A win gets you noticed.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Early morning: unpack the wholesale delivery, cut and condition every stem into water. Then the order list: daily bouquets, a funeral spray, wedding centrepieces for Saturday. Between designs you serve walk-in customers, take phone orders and sweep up. Holidays mean 12-hour days. Wedding florists spend Friday building and Saturday setting up at the venue at dawn.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
One day a year can make up a big share of a flower shop's annual sales. Shops hire temporary staff, work through the night and pre-sell roses weeks ahead. If you hate pressure, this is the week to find out.
Canadian shops sell a lot of imported roses and tropical flowers, especially in winter. A florist's day starts with what came in from the wholesaler and what survived the trip.
The Canadian Institute of Floral Design in Toronto runs a 105-hour program over three weeks and says it has trained more than 5,000 graduates since 1988. Fast, but the real learning is the first year in a shop.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.