Central Coast florist Boydita has been named as a finalist in the Florist – Service Excellence category of the Sydney Markets Fresh Awards, with winners to be announced in July.
The business will celebrate its 50th birthday at the end of July after half a century of serving the region.
It was established at Erina in 1974 by Brian and Dawn Roe.
Brian Rowe was renowned for the prize-winning show roses he had exhibited successfully for many years and it was a natural progression to venture into the commercial growing of roses.
He established Boydita Native Flowers and Foliages at the Sydney Market where he was able to introduce many exotics, which were highly sought after by floral designers.
Their daughter Lyn joined the business in 1980, eventually joined by her husband David in 1989, and the two successfully ran the business for many years.
In 1996, Boydita Floral Design School was established offering VETAB, Nationally Recognised courses in Commercial Floristry.
In 2002/03, the company relocated the commercial growing to a bigger and better site at Somersby after having been at Erina for 28 years.
The retail side of Boydita Flowers Delivered now operates from Fountain Plaza, Erina, and in 2010 Boydita also purchased commercial premises at Riverside Park, West Gosford.
The business has received many awards and accolades over the years.
Five years ago, current owner Julie Betland took over the business, after almost 20 years working with the former owners.
“I did my floristry traineeship in Canberra and moved to the Central Coast almost 25 years ago,” she said.
“The owner of the company I worked for in Canberra was good friends with the Rowes and I had a job organised with Boydita as soon as I made the move.”
Betland has made many changes since buying the business five years ago.
“We’ve had some massive revamps,” she said.
“Just 10 months after I bought the business, COVID hit and brought with it some challenges.
“While many businesses suffered, the floristry industry actually thrived during the lockdown periods.
“We were very fortunate.
“We had to close our doors, but were continuously doing orders – our online business doubled over that period.
“People couldn’t visit family and friends, so sending flowers and gift hampers became increasingly popular.
“The first Mother’s Day after COVID hit produced record sales- florists will probably never see anything like it again.
“A lot of businesses went south during the lockdowns but some did very well.
“Another example is the company which does our graphics and signage.
“They said it was one of their busiest times, with many people having time to remodel their businesses during enforced closures.”
Since she took over the business, Betland has fully renovated the store twice.
“We’ve taken it to a more modern level,” she said.
“We’ve been pushing the online presence and developing our web site, offering different lines of product and expanding our plants and gift packs.
“We try to keep everything fresh and new, constantly updating products, keeping up with trends and providing unique products not available through supermarkets.”
In addition to flowers, Boydita also offers gourmet hampers and packages ranging from food and fruit to bath products, wine, chocolates, gifts, add-ons.
In addition to Julie, the business has five staff members.
The Sydney Markets Fresh Awards recognise greengrocers, florists, produce and flower growers, wholesalers, providores, Paddy’s traders and fresh content creators from across NSW and the ACT.
They honour local business owners and their staff’s achievements and dedication.
Winners will be announced on July 12 in Sydney.
This is fantastic mews. Congratulations to Boydita, Julie and her staff. Best wishes for July results.