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This Life: Meet the Leeds city centre florist
Jeremy Bartle is the owner of Bartle's Florists which has been a fixture of the Merrion Centre in Leeds for 40 years.
The 49-year-old, who is originally from Roundhay and now lives in Walton near Wetherby, is following his parents James and Ruby in the family business.
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Jeremy is married to Gillian and the couple have a son, Matthew, 20.
"We're very busy at the moment with Valentine's Day coming up, but it wasn't always like that.
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"When I started we were lucky to get through 10 red roses, now we're looking at two-and-a-half thousand.
That's down to commercialisation, simple as that.
I don't buy my wife red roses for Valentine's Day. She works with me so by the time February 14 rolls around she's seen enough of them. She
prefers a nice meal out.
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"I love flowers. When I pick up something new and good quality that I know is going to last for people, that's great.
Roses are probably my favourite flowers, because they've made me so
much money over the years.
You just can't fall out with something that has done so well for you for so long.
My first job was working for my mum and dad as a nine-year-old in 1969 and I just found that I enjoyed it.
We moved stores three times but it was always within five yards of where it is now.
We have quite a few regular customers, some that have been coming for 40 years. That's nice because it shows we're doing something right.
We are always fighting time in this job. With flowers you can't just put them away at the end of the day and get them back out tomorrow.
You never know where the next order is coming from or where it's going to. We send flowers all over the world, from America to Africa and China to New Zealand.
There's no other industry like it because it has to be there on time and you don't get a second chance.
Even during the recent bad weather last month we didn't miss a delivery. We never have done in all the years we've been going.
The one thing I couldn't live without is sailing. It's a real release that helps me to relax away from work.
"I started with Scouts when I was about 13 and I've loved it ever since. My wife and I sail off the west coast of Scotland and try to get up there every two or three weeks.
We used to race dinghies and we've got a small sailing yacht up there now. It's so beautiful and peaceful.
The recession has affected us quite badly because more companies are cutting back on flowers and plants for their offices.
We're not expecting it to pick up much this year. Hopefully 2011 will be a bit better.
"The one thing that would surprise people about me is that I like quite tough sports like sailing and rugby.
I played rugby for Old Roundhegians for a few years. That's probably not something you would expect from a florist.
The best piece of advice I've ever received was something my mum and dad drummed into me.
It's an old Yorkshire saying that you should always make sure you have a bit of wool on your back.
It means making sure you have a bit of money for a rainy day, if it all goes pear-shaped tomorrow you've at least got something to fall back on.
It's old-fashioned stuff but there aren't many businesses that have been going 40 years, so they knew what they were talking about.
My philosophy on life is to be straight with everybody and, in return, hope that they're straight with me.
"If people can't give me their word on something then I just walk away. Simple as that.
I don't like Leeds anymore. I just feel the city thinks it's something it's not.
It has sub-offices of big companies but never has the head office. It's always on the rise and on the fall.
It thinks it's a big city but it's not. We haven't even got a transport system. Leeds will never be a great city because it can't even move its own people. It hasn't got the infrastructure to be a great city.
"I've spent a lifetime waiting for someone to walk in and buy every flower in the shop and 18 months ago it happened.
A Russian guy came in and spent about a thousand pounds, so he was obviously trying to impress someone. I didn't get chance to find out who it was though because he only spoke broken English.
On a quiet day you always hope someone's going to come in and say that but that's the first time it's happened.
If there's one person I could meet it would be Sir Francis Chichester, who was the first person to circumnavigate the world in the modern era.
I would like to know what inspired him and gave him the balls to do it, especially as he was in his 60s when he did it.
"It's something I would love to do. Maybe I will when I retire."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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