Sweet Bud Florals isn’t your typical flower shop and that’s exactly why we caught up with them

Nestled on Merseyway in the heart of Stockport, Liv Woodward has created what is quite possibly Manchester’s most unique florist, offering bouquets, plants, and floral arrangements with a delightfully quirky twist. As well as their unique, modern style, they sell bright, unconventional flowerpots and houseplants that add a fun talking point to your home. 

She has been recognised as one of the best wedding florists in Greater Manchester and has created several notable floral installations throughout her career, including her Caroline Aherne arrangement, which was featured at the Manchester Flower Festival. 

Can you tell us a bit about you and your journey into floristry? 

“I’ve been a florist since 2010, so quite a long time now. We started off in a studio in Levenshulme, and then we gradually got bigger and progressed to getting a shop in Stockport, and that shop is called Sweet Bud Florals.  

“I trained at college in Doncaster, because I’m from Yorkshire, and then I worked for quite a while in Yorkshire at many different florists there. Then when I moved to Manchester, I got a job as a senior florist in Manchester City Centre, worked there for a couple of years, and then after a while, I just decided it was time to do it on my own.” 

What do you want, Sweet Bud Florals to be known for?  

“Well, we want to be known for being THE best place to go to get flowers. We’re quite a modern florist, so it’s quite different to what you’d usually see, at the other traditional  florists. I feel like we’re good value for money, and we’re trendy and colourful.  

“We do a lot of weddings, grand events and things like that but it’s a modern style of floristry so it’s different to seeing the classic, traditional styles. And we use the best kinds of flowers, so it’s not cheap fillers, like chrysanthemums and the kinds that you’d usually find in a supermarket.” 

“We have species that you wouldn’t necessarily ever find in a supermarket, quite unusual stems and luxury buds, whilst still maintaining affordable prices. For example, Anthuriums are really popular here. We only use the big-headed roses, which are really nice quality and in terms of gerberas, we don’t just get normal gerberas, we get the pasta gerberas and the spider gerberas. We get dahlias, nice big hydrangeas, things like that. Again, things that are harder to find and we have quite a good online presence because of this. 

“We’re also really eco-friendly as well. So, a big issue in floristry is that these traditional florists use a lot of cellophane wrap and they use floral foam, which is really, really bad for the environment because it fills all our water system with micro plastics. So, we don’t use any of that stuff. We only use cellophane on the bottom because we need to fill it with water. Other than that, we just use nice, colourful papers, and in the funeral flowers, we don’t use your traditional foam, we use the renewal foam, which is a lot better for the environment and yeah, it’s far more sustainable.” 

What do your customers have to say about you?  

“They say a lot of nice things. Not just about flowers but the house plants as well. We get a lot of repeat customers buying house plants and they tend to say that when they get them home, they really flourish; they’re really good lasting plants. Flowers wise, I would say, they really like our modern style, because it’s not something that you find everywhere.  

“Just the other day, we had a girl that came all the way from Oldham, just for our flowers, because she’d not seen our style anywhere else.” 

And what are your ambitions for the shop?  

“Ooh… ambitions for the shop… I’d say we would like to grow more. It’s still early days, so generally day to day, it can be a little bit quiet, but we’d really like to start getting more bouquet orders. We want everyone in Stockport to know that this is the place to come when you’re celebrating something special. Whether it’s a birthday, an anniversary, or simply a thoughtful gesture, Sweet Bud Florals is here to create a real nice bouquet; something that’s a little bit different.” 

And how do you find Stockport? How have you found settling here?  

“Especially as someone who’s not from Stockport originally, I love it. I’m from Barnsley, Yorkshire, and it reminds me a lot of where I’m from, it’s very similar: the town centre and the kinds of people that you get. You get a lot of younger people, with young families, but then you also get the older generation as well, it’s very mixed. And everyone’s been super, super lovely since we moved here. 

“We’re friendly with quite a few of the local businesses, for example, Still Life Story, because they used to have this shop. I know Ruby, the owner, she’s really nice, and we work quite often with her because she does flowers as well, although they’re not solely a florist. Sometimes they might have run out of stems, and they’ll come and ask us for something. Also, we do flowers for Sticky Fingers and Dilly Deli that’s just opened. So, yeah, we have some nice relationships with many of the independents.”