‘They couldn’t have planned it better if they’d tried. Wait until you tell everyone at the meeting. We can have some serious fun with this.’
‘Can’t we just.’
‘I’ve got to go as the farm shop is busy, but I’ll see you later at the pub, around six-thirty.’
Florrie hung up the call, her mind in overdrive. Flowers in Bloom couldn’t come soon enough.
Sitting outside The Vintage Flower Van, Florrie edited the second reel of the day. As she watched herself share her great-grandfather’s story, it captured her heart just as much as it had the first time she’d heard it. She knew that her new followers were going to fall in love with their story. Five minutes later, the reel was edited, and Florrie felt she’d chosen the perfect background music. She uploaded it to all of her social media accounts and wondered how long it would take for people to interact with it. She looked up to see a steady queue of people heading towards The Vintage Flower Van. Florrie wasn’t sure what was going on but there was a certain buzz in the air.
‘It’s Florrie! Look, it’s Florrie Appleton!’
A group of tourists were heading her way, each waving madly with one hand, their phones held aloft in the other. Was it possible that these were some of her online followers, here to capture pictures of her and The Vintage Flower Van? What a result!
Bunch after bunch of flowers were sold and Florrie wondered if this was what it was like to be famous. Everyone in the queue was talking about the van and Florrie couldn’t wait to see their reactions to her great-grandfather’s story. All the flowers were sold out by three p.m.; Florrie had never seen anything like it, and she’d lost count of the number of times she’d had her photograph taken with a customer in front of The Vintage Flower Van.
With nothing left to sell, she began to close up for the day, wondering if today was a one-off and whether the excitement would quickly dwindle. She hoped not. There had even been customers asking for her autograph! She felt silly about it, but it had started her thinking. Maybe The Vintage Flower Van needed more of a personal touch, a little extra keepsake for all those buying flowers from the van. Maybe some sort of label – ‘Flowers by Florrie’? – which she could sign and attach to the wrapping of the blooms.
Her phone rang, and she was pleased to see it was a call from Martha. ‘Buttercup Barn is all clean and tidy, the books are balanced and I’ll be back in the morning.’
Florrie knew that she couldn’t have gotten through this difficult time without Martha and Isla but she also knew she couldn’t keep putting Martha to work, as she should be relaxing and enjoying her retirement. As soon as Flowers in Bloom was over, she’d advertise for help, when she had more time to shift through application forms and could arrange interviews.
After she hung up the call, she checked her social media accounts.
She gasped.
The story of her great-grandfather had gone viral! Her notifications were off the scale with hundreds of comments, likes and shares. This was exactly what Florrie had hoped would happen!
With the community and this kind of backing behind her, she could already imagine how people were going to react when they heard exactly what was going on behind the scenes. W. Houston Property Developers would be splashed all over the news for all the wrong reasons.
‘This is fate,’ she murmured, locking up The Vintage Flower Van. As she walked back towards the cottage, email notifications began to ping, and top of the list was one from Jaydon. She opened it immediately but her joy was short-lived. W. Houston Property Developers had replied and said The Vintage Flower Van belonged to the cottage and was non-negotiable. Disappointed, she stood at the gate of Rose Cottage and looked back towards the van.
She rang Isla. Thankfully, Isla picked up on the first ring.
‘Isla, W. Houston Property Developers won’t let me keep the van.’
Isla was quiet for a moment, ‘I’m actually thinking this is an advantage for us at this stage.’
Florrie was flummoxed. ‘How do you make that out?’
‘Everyone in the shop today has been talking about your great-grandfather’s story. People are really connecting to your social media – they’re emotionally invested in The Vintage Flower Van. Your passion and warmth radiate in every reel and everyone can see how much you love being a florist and how much that van means to you. When people realise that they can’t buy their flowers from The Vintage Flower Van that has been standing for years, and then they discover the gardens along with all the wildlife and flowers are going to be destroyed, there will be a lot of passionately angry people out there. Believe me. One cause will help to highlight the other. A fight worth fighting is worth fighting hard for.’
Blitzed by myriad emotions, Florrie could see exactly what Isla was saying. Her thoughts were running wild. ‘With the community meeting scheduled for Wednesday, can you imagine how many objections the planning permission people will receive by the weekend? I’m actually beginning to believe that we might have enough clout to put a real spanner in the works.’
‘I believe we do.’
Florrie had fire in her belly. She wasn’t sure why, but the idea of fighting W. Houston Property Developers suddenly excited her rather than scared her.
ChapterEleven
Just after four p.m. Florrie was sitting in the courtyard cashing up the day’s takings. She was amazed to see they’d nearly tripled those of the day before. Even after The Vintage Flower Van had closed for the day, people had been walking up the lane and taking photos of the outside of the van. Closing the accounts book, Florrie turned to face the garden. The scene in front of her was enchanting; the view of Heartcross Mountain alive with purple heather always took her breath away. Turning her gaze towards her great aunt Ada’s favourite spot, the rose garden, Florrie hoped The Vintage Flower Van would see a lot more days like today.
Lifting the lid on her laptop, which was in front of her on the table, she viewed the regular orders from the wholesalers. The orders always increased during the winter months, but now, with the possibility of losing the garden, the orders for spring and summer would also need to be boosted. The next year in the business was certainly going to be a learning curve and very different from anything Florrie had experienced in the past.
She had also pulled out Ada’s old flower bible. The book was handwritten by Ada herself and was over sixty years old. Ada had updated it on a regular basis. It outlined the distinct areas of the land attached to Rose Cottage and the volume of flowers grown in each different section. She had also kept a log of which varieties sold best over the years – pink peonies and violet roses were clear frontrunners. Florrie turned the pages carefully, thinking that the amount of meticulous, intricate detail that had gone into this book was commendable. Looking back at the laptop, she decided to increase the volume of flowers from the wholesalers for tomorrow’s delivery, especially if today was anything to go by.
As soon as that was done, she took a quick look over the comments that had been posted since she’d uploaded her great-grandfather’s story. They were utterly heart-warming, her followers having instantly fallen in love with the story, just like she did. The Vintage Flower Van was becoming an overnight triumph on social media and that was exactly what Florrie had hoped for. Feeling loved by all the new virtual friends she was making, she began to scroll through the likes and comments, replying to as many as she could.
Finishing off her drink, she began to feel peckish and was grateful she would be meeting Isla at the pub in half an hour. Taking all her stuff back inside, she placed her laptop and the accounts book on the kitchen table and placed the flower bible on the dresser where it belonged. Taking a look around the kitchen, Florrie knew in the next week she was going to have to make a start on packing up Ada’s belongings, a job she wasn’t mentally prepared for. She exhaled and grabbed her bag. She didn’t want to think about that just yet.
