New Buxton florist shop is blooming marvellous

Anastasia Babusca used to work as a freelance florist for high end corporate businesses in London.

In December 2022 she moved to Buxton with her family and last month opened a shop, Peak Flowers, in the town centre.

The 40-year-old said: “London was very fast paced and you never saw the same faces again.

“We have only been open since March and already we feel part of the community and it’s lovely seeing customers return to us.”

Anastasia, from Romania, got into flowers when she was travelling in the early 2000s.

She said: “I was working on a farm in Gloucestershire and helping to cut the flowers and I felt really happy.”

She knew then she wanted a career working with flowers so returned to home to study.

By 2009 she had relocated to London to carve her path in the floristry world.

“I’ve worked for big hotel chains, the National Art Gallery, the Science Museum and done Chelsea in Bloom and huge Asian weddings.

“I’ve learned so much not just about flowers but about building structures to hang displays off.”

Anastasia and husband Daniel decided to relocate and were looking at properties in the Lake District and in a Scotland but both felt too far.

“Buxton is brilliant,” she said, “It has the wonderful hills and countryside we wanted but it’s also in the middle of the country so we can shoot off at weekends and school holidays and we’re not too far away from most places.”

She said she has been well received by the town, “there was a florist but it closed down last year so we’ve filled a gap in the market and people seem to love flowers here in the High Peak.”

The florist has already got bookings for weddings and will be taking part in an autumn wedding fair in the Pavilion Gardens.

She added: “To have my own shop is a dream, and Daniel has been a great designing the website and doing up the shop.

"We are very excited for the future of Peak Flowers and this is just the start of our journey.”