When Emma Taylor was a little girl, she loved visiting a Dutch flower shop.

“My dad lives in Medemblik in Holland and there’s a beautiful florist’s in a medieval building. It has a brick-patterned ceiling, and amazing trees and a pretty garden at the back. It is magical, and whenever I went to visit I had to go there – even before the ice cream shop.”

The shop made such an impression upon the youngster that she thought about becoming a florist, and now has a shop of her own, with her name sitting above the window.

“I’m so proud of it,” she says, looking around at the glorious flowers and lush foliage. “It is in the middle of the village, and people often meet here. They say ‘I’ll see you at Emma’s’, which is lovely.”

Setting up shop didn’t happen overnight. After leaving school, Emma worked for the Inland Revenue.

“But I harboured desires and enrolled on a course in floristry at Shipley College.”

She put her newfound skills to use arranging flowers at friends’ weddings and loved it.

Opening her own shop was a dream, but, after a difficult period in her life, she decided to take the plunge. “I always thought ‘In my next life I will do this.’ Then I thought, ‘No, I’ll do it now.’”

So she took the plunge and found a suitable property near her home in Baildon. Setting up in one shop unit, she began to attract a regular stream of customers.

A year later, the next door unit came available and Emma expanded into it, sourcing unusual and interesting gifts to sell alongside the flowers.

“I introduced vintage and retro products, and a children’s corner. I looked out for items that were imaginatively-designed and quirky.”

At this point, she invited her sister Rebecca Ridgway to join her. After working in textiles and training in fashion design and pattern cutting, Rebecca felt this was a great opportunity to use her creative talents.

“At the time I was training to be a company accountant, so it was a massive decision for me,” she says.

Initially, she worked on the company accounts, before signing up for a training course in Cheshire with top florist Ian Lloyd.

“I learned so much – the rest is down to your own style and interpretation of colours and form. “ A growing area of business is styling people’s homes. The sisters use their skills to transform homes for parties and other special events.

“We either dress one room or a whole house,” says Emma, “As well as flowers, we use little twinkly bits and pieces to give the room a lovely party atmosphere. It can really change the look of a room, either in a dramatic or more subtle way.”

People are turning to them, not only for parties, but for floral extravaganzas at Christmas and to mark other seasonal events.

Weddings offer the chance to style marquees – a blank canvas offering unlimited scope to make an impression.

“We can create woodland scenes with trees, or a seasonal look using certain colours,” says Emma.

Adds Rebecca: “It is exciting when the seasons change and we have different flowers to work with.”

She describes their style as “relaxed vintage, with a quirky twist”.

“We will, for example, contrast cottage garden flowers with South African, or tropical flowers,” says Emma.

“We also use herbs with nice, textured foliage, like flowering mint, eucalyptus, lavender and rosemary. It is very aromatic, so the look combines with the fragrance.”

For weddings, the sisters encourage clients to express their ideas on a mood board. “We like to have a feel for what colours and styles they like and get in tune with what they want,” says Rebecca.

“A lot of our brides are a bit quirky and like the fact that we use vintage accessories such as crockery, wooden bird cages, tea caddies, and books alongside unusual flowers.”

Building a reputation for imaginative styling – their work has featured in glossy magazines – they are one of two National Trust- recommended florists working at East Riddlesden Hall near Keighley.

“That is a really good place to dress. We can really go to town,” says Emma. The sisters have also applied their magic touch to stately Broughton Hall in Skipton, and have provided floral backdrops for nuptials as far away as Lake Como in Italy.

“We’ve also been approached by a large, Harrogate-based company to do big society weddings and charity balls, so it is really taking off,” says Emma, “We are thrilled to bits – all the hard work is paying off.”

Commissions have also included large arrangements for schools.

The pair put in long hours. Says Rebecca: “It is not at all glamourous. Half our time is spent cleaning buckets and snipping flowers. It takes a lot of background work. We have had very little sleep for the past six years. We could have done three 18-hour days over Mother’s Day.”

The sisters’ passion for flowers is clear. “I love craspedia – it is like a little yellow planet, and I love the changing colours of hydrangeas,” says Emma.

Adds Rebecca: “We work really well together and love the fact that we are doing something different every day.”