Meet the ambassadors of Smithers-Oasis UK
Nobody knows our products better than the people using them every day, which is why we’ve picked five fabulous florists to represent our brand as official Smithers-Oasis UK Ambassadors. The ambassadors will be helping us on all kinds of projects in the coming year, from product photo shoots and catalogues, to educational videos, how-tos and demos. It’s all with the aim of helping UK florists to learn about our products and get the most out of using them to better support their business.
Meet the team below...
Helen Jamieson – Fiori Design, Whickham
Helen has worked with Smithers-Oasis UK for a long time; designing flowers for photography, helping create brochures, doing demos, and influencing product development – so we’re really pleased to be able to make her an official ambassador! Helen runs two successful florist businesses near Newcastle with the help of her team, including her florist mum. Outside of her day job, Helen has been sharing her skills on a global scale with work for organisations like Floral Fundamentals, and at prestigious events including the Interflora World Cup. Her design talent has won her numerous awards and accolades including a medal at RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Karen Lindsay – Flowers by Karen, Kilmarnock
We’ve had the pleasure of working with Karen on several of our seasonal product photo shoots. She’s not only an excellent florist, but is super-savvy when it comes to running her business (especially in the realm of marketing thanks to her degree in Media). Flowers By Karen opened in 2002 and has grown and flourished ever since, including having a full face lift in 2019. Away from her shop, Karen's expertise extends to projects like the Leeds Castle Flower Festival, The National Flower Show at Hylands House, and Chelsea in Bloom. A Good Florist Guide council member and National Florist Day ambassador, Karen has won multiple industry awards (including BFA Retail Florist of the Year) while balancing a busy home life with her husband and five children.
Kerrie Raines – The Flower House, Aylesbury
A second generation florist, Kerrie branched out on her own after learning the ropes at her mum’s shop Paula’s Petals, and now runs her studio at home. We first noticed Kerrie’s exquisitely pretty designs on Instagram; Kerrie’s husband has some pretty good photography skills, so they’re a perfect pair when it comes to showing off beautiful blooms! We loved what Kerrie was doing with our packaging products and containers, so we invited her to come help us with one of our own photo shoots - and she has been doing an amazing job helping us show off our products ever since. Kerrie is also a BFA and Good Florist Guide member, and recently won a Muddy Stilettos Award for Best Florist.
Nicola Armstrong – The Bloom Room, Cumbria
We first came across Nicola through the amazingly creative custom tributes we saw her designing using OASIS® Floral Foam. Nicola’s special technique achieves a 3D look by carving out our 2D Designer Sheets, which are then used as a canvas for flowers and OASIS® Spray Colour, expertly shaded - Nicola’s background in art really shines through in her designs (Read the How-to Here). In recent years, Nicola’s success has reached far beyond her humble shop in the quaint rural village of Millom, when she was scouted by global skincare brand Espa to be their feature florist and conduct workshops for luxury brands like Vogue, Tatler and Cosmopolitan, at exclusive London hotels. Nicola is a Good Florist Guide and BFA member, and winner of BFA Florist of the Year.
Lesley Adams – Simply Flowers, Brighouse
Lesley is a passionate eco florist - when we visited her lovely shop back in 2022, we were so impressed by Lesley’s commitment to sustainability across the whole business. It’s not just about the flowers and how they’re presented; they’re delivered in an electric vehicle, which is powered most of the year by the shop’s solar panels (Learn More about EVs in this Article). Waste management is also important, and at the shop the team ensure as much is recycled as possible, and all flower waste is collected for composting. Lesley is also a very creative designer, catering to tribute requests from the traditional to the unique, and has recently found her videos going viral on social media, when she started sharing behind-the-scenes timelapses of creating designs using OASIS® Bio Floral Foam. Be sure to follow her on Instagram and Tik Tok!
Our ambassadors really are a lovely bunch – and a lot of fun! Look out for them in our upcoming activities.
