Mervi Juurikka

After High School Mervi Juurikka didin’t know what career to choose. She liked nature and crafting and taking care of Mom’s flowers in the garden so she spoke with my teacher about what career choices were available and in the end decided to go with the gardening school. In 2014 she started her gardener/Vocational Qualification in Business and Administration School and soon, after watching her teacher showing her how to make bouquet and then making one herself she realised this is what she wanted to do!

Mervi graduated from the school in 2017 and then began a year at florist school in Kemepele! There her teacher encouraged her and told her to try competitions. She graduated from florist school in 2018.

As Mervi says, “After florist school I decided to put in extra effort and try to learn things myself at home since I still couldn’t find work. My Dad made a tiny corner in his garage for me to be able to do flower things and my Mom told me I could use anything from her garden for the flower creations. I decided to try competitions and the first one I did was Sadonkorjuu Kilpailu in 2018 where I went to Jämsänkoski in my own category I won gold and in whole competition I took second place just 4 points away from the second gold!

After this competition it gave me more courage to try other competitions too. Then I decided to try Fusion Flowers competitions! The first competition I did was a hydrangea table competition. I took all the material I had from my Mom’s garden and indoor plants. I was enjoyed making them and to me the most important thing was to get experience and to be able to do something different. When I heard that both of my creations were chosen for the magazine I was really shocked and super happy! After that I participated in 2 more Fusion Flowers magazine competitions and in total now 5 of my works have made it to the magazine! That same year I made a big decision and participated in the International designer of the year competition. I bought the cut flowers from the local flower shop and did all the things in my parents yard and garage. I had decided to have the goal to finish all 4 categories. I was able to finish them on time and 2 of my works got bronze in the competition. I want to grow as a designer and be able to learn a lot of things and create beautiful flower designs!”

Mervi now has a job and she really impressed everyone at the photo shoot with her quiet determination and she clearly thrived and made a lot of new friends and connections. Watch this space!