Flowers can say many things: sorry, thank you, congratulations. Used to mark milestones from birthdays to weddings, purchased by love-struck teenagers and grieving grandparents, Sharon Wilcox has seen them all.
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And next month, with 40 years of operation as International Flowers and Balloonland, she will mark her own milestone.
"It's been a good job, you meet a lot of interesting people," Ms Wilcox said. "They tell you all their life stories."
Having always enjoyed the smell of florist shops, it was while living in Melbourne she applied for a job as a shop assistant in one.
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"Then [the owner] put me through school so I stopped wrecking all her flowers," Ms Wilcox joked.
On moving back to Tasmania, she couldn't find work. It was then she figured she would start up her own business on Wellington Street.
After 10 years underneath Novotel and a move to the current site next to Morty's on its opening, the store has now served customers there for almost 20 years.
"You've got to be reliable," Ms Wilcox said of running the brick-and-mortar business. Communication with customers was key.
Ms Wilcox has taken great care to inform her clients, regular and otherwise, of an abnormal interstate absence this week to attend the wedding of one of her four children.
She laughed: "And I've got to do the flowers while I'm up there."
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