Hollywood never called… and really, neither did anything else. But then Blakemore’s Flowers did. 

Started in 1942, Blakemore’s Flowers was and still is an Harrisonburg, VA institution. At 26, I was presented the opportunity to buy the shop. Truthfully, since I had yet to find a calling other than flowers, I leapt because it was a prudent, practical business decision, not because I loved floral design.

Through business ownership, I finally started to fall in love, but not with flowers! I loved efficiency, strategy, and building a profitable business. I also found that I loved serving the small-town community I grew up in. 

I loved designing anniversary arrangements for my friends that had been together since high school. I loved picking up the phone to find someone I’ve known my whole life on the other end, asking me to use flowers to help them celebrate a birthday, a newborn baby, a promotion, or a wedding. I grew a love for sympathy work, for being a comforting shoulder and artistic outlet for loved ones to express their grief and sorrow.

In those moments, I found I loved connecting to my hometown through flowers, and I stopped dreaming of something “bigger” or “better” than the place that I was in.

Artistically, though, I was struggling. Being my own boss should have been liberating, but it was just overwhelming. I wanted to make beautiful work for my customers and community, and I always had my own sense of style, but I had a hard time channeling it into floral design. 

I turned to formal education and social media to discover new techniques and styles, and I LOVED what was out there. I learned about new-to-me blooms like scabiosa and chocolate cosmos. I started to fall for looks and shapes that I didn’t find on my wire-service website. I explored color palettes that were moody, or flirty, or beautiful in ways that I hadn’t dreamed of.

While these resonated with me artistically, they felt at odds with the kind of work my rural community needed from me in their daily orders, their sympathy requests, and their wedding day looks. To introduce novelty blooms, trend-forward styles, and more adventurous palettes would take time and strategy. 

With brushed-up sales pitches, well-managed customer expectations, and approachable, affordable changes to my design style (as well as an updated website and social media presence), I sought to make modern retail designs for a traditional customer-base. 

In doing so, I was surprised to find that my business became even more successful! Stylistically, the new Blakemore’s Flowers look set us apart from the local competition. We’re now the preferred flower shop for many funeral homes, event venues, and even the local university in the area. Our award-winning work has led to considerable growth for our business. 

Not only was it a financial success… I finally found my passion for flowers in beautiful, expressive, and artistic floral designs that reflect, embrace, and meet the needs of my community. 

Thanks to my community, I’ve found my love of flowers. Thanks to flowers, I’ve fallen in love with my little hometown. This is where I married my husband, and it’s where I raise my daughter, own a home, and choose to live my life and love my family. 

Beyond my local community, I’ve also found a community of florists that struggle with many of the same challenges I’ve faced in my business. In an industry that increasingly strives for picture-worthy event work and trendy, artisanal floral design, there can be limited education and resources for, and representation of, brick-and-mortar, small-town shops and designers.

I’ve become a passionate educator, mentor, and advocate for such businesses and florists, and recently I’ve set my sights on sustainability.

In a world where the environment has become politicized, it’s important to know where, when, and how to introduce our customers to something different. In the same way I understood that my customers had traditional tastes and may be resistant to different flowers and design styles, it can also be a hard sell to ask them to pay more for a product just because it is more sustainable. 

My goal is to create an inclusive, empathetic, and realistic path to sustainable floral design with practical, approachable, and profitable solutions to everyday design problems.