Pierce Jackson remembers the lead up to every Valentine's Day growing up was spent folding countless floral delivery boxes on the floor of their family shop.
Hours of box folding competitions with his sister eventually led him to work in the same colourful, fragrant environment where customers, old and new, keep coming back.
"Every day flies by in the flower shop," he said.
Mr Jackson was a dancer before he chose to return to floristry and keep the business in the family.
Now the young gun is preparing to take over the shop from his mum, Janine Batley, who took over from her mum and OG florist, Elma Batley.
Pierce's online skills have helped Janine Florist flourish in the digital age, just like Janine's innovations and Elma's creativity kept orders flowing over the decades.
"I'm proud as punch," Mr Jackson said smiling at his grandmother. "He is so special," she said.
Their London Circuit shop is in the same spot in Bailey's Corner where Mrs Batley first set up in 1960.
"All the shop owners there, across the years, have been such a lovely team. It feels like one big family," Janine Batley said.
It was her father, Ken, who decided there needed to be a florist in the city centre where there were none at the time.
He was already busy running a record shop in East Row and so, encouraged his wife to do a floristry crash course in Sydney.
"It was a bit of a shock because I had many children," Mrs Batley said. "But it all worked out."
Lo and behold, she bloomed into the role.
Janine Batley was in awe of her mother's efforts in the shop and in raising her siblings.
"In my childhood memories, Fridays mornings were spent in our backyard. Mum would be at a table with us little children playing around her feet while she made wedding bouquets," she said.
"Our family had to get going but weddings still kept coming in ... it was really special."
It was 30 years before the internet when Mrs Batley would do floral demonstrations for budding florists in regional and metro cities across the country.
Mrs Batley's business continued owing to her dedication to floristry and bond with the community. She even opened six other flower shops the city for a number of years.
Janine Florist has routinely been part of the capital's grandiose and historical events. Their florists have celebrated and mourned key moments of Australian life with their fellow Canberrans.
"There's a lot of creativity in floristry but there's also a lot to be said about connecting with individuals," Mr Jackson said.
From the opening of the new Parliament House, recurring royal visits, austere pandemic gatherings to the death of the British monarch, their flowers have helped set the mood for those events.
The only trying time for the shop was one pandemic fortnight which Janine Batley said was the worst time in her career.
She had repeated calls from folks whose parents had died, and could not find flowers to honour their passing.
"Never again" would she close her shop to those who need flowers, she said.
