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Beth Webb remembers sitting by her grandmother’s feet as a youngster, learning to make ribbon roses. Those lessons prompted her first entrepreneurial enterprise at age 13: ribbon roses in plastic cylinders sold to classmates as Mother’s Day gifts. “Every mother at my high school must have received one,” she recalls. Thirty years later, Beth still believes in the power of the flower, and continues to brighten people’s days with striking arrangements created at her Brisbane florist shop, Divine Flowers. 

6am: The life of a florist starts early with a daily pilgrimage to the flower markets. Beth loves the buzz that introduces each new day. “Your senses are assaulted,” she says. “There’s so much colour, scent and sound.” Much of the stock for Divine Flowers is bought by auction at the Brisbane Markets. Beth shares the early mornings with Renee Rowe, who has worked with her for the past decade.

Beth learned how to buy at auction the hard way. “I’ve made some terrible mistakes,” she says. “The worst was a hand signal that saw me buy 100 bunches of grevillea instead of 10!” These days she briefs a flower broker, Adrian Kamp, on what’s needed and what she’s willing to pay. “The auction is for our day-to-day purchasing and Adrian will stay and bid for us, letting me, or Renee, get on with the day. In my case, that means heading back to the shop or a quick trip home to get my son on his way.”

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With such variety available, it’s surprising when Beth admits she doesn’t actually have a favourite flower. “As the season changes, I get excited about the new blooms that start to arrive. But for me, what brings back the best memories is the fragrance of common jasmine. It reminds me of backpacking in Greece one summer in my twenties – such happy, carefree days, when the only thing I had to worry about was what I was going to eat for lunch!”

7.30am: Beth's four-year-old son, Angel, lives with Beth for half of the week and the other half with his dad, Bradley Butten. Beth and Bradley separated a few years ago and now share his care. “It's a situation that works for the three of us now,” says Beth. “Bradley and I both feel we’re better parents for it. I structure my work and social life around Angel. Occasionally, I need to do the early-morning market run when he is home, and then I am incredibly lucky to have Bradley's mum, Therese, available to sleep over.”

As well as picking up Angel, Beth collects her 'business partner', Dougie, a six-year-old Maltese-Silky cross. Dougie spends his workday curled up on a cushion in the Divine Flowers workroom, or trotting around the Newmarket shopping centre, checking out the neighbourhood.

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