Faces Behind D8: Heather Condon, owner of Flowerpop Inchicore
Few places in Dublin 8 burst with as much color, creativity, and community warmth as Flowerpop, the vibrant floral studio on Emmet Road in Inchicore that grew from a pandemic born passion project into a beloved local hub. Behind its bright blue shopfront and bold blooms is Heather Condren, whose accidental journey into floristry sparked by a hen party flower crown, a surprise scholarship, and homemade wreaths while pregnant—became a purpose-led business full of contemporary design, sustainability, and heartfelt connection.
In this conversation, Heather reflects on building self-belief while balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship, her “bold blooms” style inspired by pop art, fashion, and music, the power of local seasonal flowers, the supportive spirit of Dublin 8, and how her social care background brings therapeutic workshops and real meaning to her creative work.
You’ve described starting Flowerpop “by accident” during the pandemic making a small batch of wreaths at home while you were pregnant. Can you talk us through that moment and how it grew into a full studio with a shop in Dublin 8?
Well, it actually started out when, for my hen party, my friends organised a flower crown workshop and I absolutely loved it. That planted the seed. It was Kay’s Flower School who taught it, and they’re actually around the corner in Dublin 8 as well.
That same summer, Kay’s Flower School were celebrating thirty years and they ran a scholarship for someone to win a full training programme. I entered for the craic, and I didn’t realise a few other people had entered me as well, and I won. While I was training with them that October, I found out I was pregnant at the same time.
I started making wreaths at home in my tiny little place in Ringsend, pregnant, and driving around delivering them that Christmas. Then it went quiet for a while because it was Covid and baby life and all of that. But I kept saying to them, “I promise you didn’t waste that scholarship on me, I’ll do something cool with it.”
The real turning point was when we were looking for somewhere to rent. I found a house in Inchicore, and the day I signed the lease I thought, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day are coming up, I’ll throw up a post and see is there anywhere I can work from. I stuck it on Twitter, and Lauren who owns DA Developments got in touch. She said she had a little shopfront on Emmet Road. I’d literally signed a lease on the house the day before, so I went down to see it, and that’s honestly how I landed both my life and my shop in Inchicore.
It was only meant to be temporary during Covid, but it just grew. I kept saying I was going to go and get a “real job”, but it stuck. And then I got the keys to the shop next door, and I found out I was pregnant that day as well. That was the moment where I was like, okay, this is a real business.
Now we’re in our new space in Inchicore with a long lease, and it finally feels like home.
