FLOWER Power was all the rage long before farmer’s daughter Jo Williams was born, yet the 39-year-old has given new meaning to the catchphrase with a starry success in the floristry business.

In less than three years the bubbly entrepreneur has put her homegrown business, Issy & Bella, at the top of the game.

Firmly dedicated to her job, Jo was busily swathing Hereford Cathedral in flowers for a forthcoming memorial service when she was voted best in Britain at a glittering presentation night at the Café de Paris in London.

She has also become a ‘Chapel Designer’, an exclusive, international collective of wedding and event floral designers.

“That is just the cherry on the cake!” she says. No wonder a wooden plaque in her workshop at Marston, near Pembridge, states: ‘This Girl is on Fire!’

She felt she hadn’t a “cat in hell’s chance” of winning the top award. When news came through that she‘d scooped the Wedding Industry Awards’ national prize, she was home in bed. Alerted by a Tweet on her mobile phone, she checked the results.

“I thought, that’s me!”

She dashed to tell her parents, Gwyn and Joyce. “Mum’s legs had gone to jelly, Dad was slapping the back of the sofa! We were in massive shock!”

But Jo’s family does not rest on its laurels.

After indulging in a celebration meal with champagne at their local, the New Inn at Pembridge, it was back to work.

Jo’s devotion is why so many brides nominated Issy & Bella, with glowing reports of her warmth, understanding and skill.

They loved the fact that Jo’s personal service extends right up to the church door.

She praises the strong support provided by family and her partner, Richard Imondi. “I am a very lucky person with a very good support network,” she says.

Her aunts, Gill Smith and Jen Locke, who both live close by are ever on hand to help, and Jo is eternally grateful for inspiration from her mother.

Jo and Gill have set up Willow & Curl, making hand-dyed ribbons and ties with lovely colours taken from natural sources such as avocado stones or rose hips.

‘Willow’ is the name of Jo’s lively spaniel, and ‘Curl’ as in Curl House, her aunt’s home.

During Jo’s Dilwyn Young Farmers’ days, Joyce persuaded her to enter a floristry competition. “I didn’t want to do it, I dug my heels in!” she laughs. But she went on to win three times for the county. After a business degree – and a teaching qualification - she managed a well-known coffee house for 15 years.

“After all those 4am starts and 70-hour weeks, I decided I needed a change,” says Jo. Joyce helped with the floristry plans, and Issy & Bella (mother and daughter both bear the name Isabel) was born. “We started off quite small,” says Jo. Now they’re handling 70 weddings this summer, with 15 booked for next year already.

The shed where her pony was once stabled is home to the prize-winning business, and Jo has high praise for assistance from freelance florist, Jemma Wetherbee. The women have similar styles, having both been trained by multi award-winning florist Jay Archer.

Jo has a knack for knowing just what her clients need, and her passion for natural styles is clearly a winner. “I like to bring nature in,” she says. She gathers all sorts of additions, twigs, feathers and seedheads, and delights in adding fragrance with flowers such as scented geraniums, roses, even mint.

Meanwhile, a constant supply of flowers come from relatives’ gardens. “I like a free-flowing style, and if a flower has a kink, that’s how it goes in. If nature wants it to have a wonky stem, then that’s the way it is.”

For the future, Jo, a trained teacher, aims to “keep growing”, while expanding her flower school. In fact, everything in the Issy & Bella garden is rosy.