This article is about vocational knowing in a school context, focusing on teachers’ interaction and assessment actions. The empirical data consist of audio-recorded episodes from the assessment of a professional certificate exam, describing how five teachers together assess floral arrangements. The study examines the assessment of a bouquet, and contributes to a discussion about (i) the botanical material’s importance in the assessment, and (ii) changes in the assessment conversation’s organisation in the form of negotiations; aiming to visualise the vocational knowing and ‘dual roles’ of the teachers. The analysis highlights how aesthetic abstractions form the content of the conversation, related actions, and what aspects of professional knowing that are expressed relationally between teachers in situ. Results from the study show that respect for the material is an important part of vocational floristry knowing.