Qualifications
Florist shops tend to be small and personable businesses. New staff members are often selected for their personal attributes as much as, or even more than, their qualifications. Experience and formal education are certainly important, but may not be quite as important as a pleasant personality that appeals to a retail crowd. This is one place where nice guys may not finish last.
However, more experienced and educated people, once hired, earn more earlier on and are more likely to move onto better employment faster. The most educated florists, including the few, rare college-educated horticulturists, are management material. They either get hired to run a shop for a business owner, or work at a shop long enough to collect the resources they need to establish their own shop.