Flower power of the 1990s is in the safe hands of Robert Hale, owner of Faunus in Walmgate, York, the man for whom business is growth and growth is business.

Ever since his flower shop was shortlisted in last year's Evening Press business competition it has continued to flourish in different ways. And now the former landscape gardener plans to make it bloom again by re-entering in the Evening Press Business Venture of the Year. "It was thrilling last time and I was highly honoured to get as far as I did," he says.

Robert, 40, opened Faunus in autumn 1994 after spending some time working in a flower shop in California. Apart from retail, it also specialises in interior and exterior floral design and the quality of his efforts was there for the whole of York - and Europe - to see when he provided the 1,000-flower display for the Ecofin summit conference of European finance ministers at Mansion House, York, last March. In the year since he last entered, Faunus has launched a Flower School with lessons centred on the plant pot garden he has nurtured in the courtyard behind his shop, in a traditional Victorian cottage garden style.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.