Flower Discoveries: Building Diverse Brands

This week on Flower Discoveries, you’ll hear about a special flower farm in Canada who is going above and beyond loving the world through flowers. Melanie at Dahlia May Flower Farm has been working tirelessly to champion bringing blooms to her local community in Ontario. She and her team have recently delivered flower arrangements to over 189 seniors in long-term care facilities! If you live in the Ontario area and want to support their initiative, reach out to them at info@dahliamay.com. 

Amanda is highlighting an article written by Team Flower Member Lily Roden called “4 Practical Steps to a More Inclusive and Ethnically Diverse Brand.” In it she shares actionable tips that are easy to implement in your everyday work. Amanda’s favorite is Lily’s first point, which she calls “checking our bubble.” This is often the first step, and it’s hard to do, because it requires some in-depth self-examination/exploration. But it’s important! Not only in our work with flowers, but how we love the world through flowers, and in our world as a whole.

For more on this topic, be sure to register for the Team Flower Conference! We have Laura and Leah Palmer of The Wild Mother speaking at the conference in September on building affirming, equitable, and just brands. 

Also, for those who use SquareSpace and are looking to revamp their website, Jacelyn is sharing a great resource for templates from Big Cat Creative!

Special Guest: Natasha McCrary of 1818 Farms

Team Flower Podcast listeners, you are in for a treat with this episode. Natasha is full of knowledge and has years of experience planning a farm, growing flowers, and leading a team (amongst other things). She’s constantly learning and is more than willing to share what she knows with the floral industry. On this episode, you’ll hear about:

• 1818 Farms’ new product line: dried flowers and bath + lifestyle products

• How to plan a flower farm

• A day in the life

• What to do when a crop fails

• Moving crops to different plots

• Top 5 flowers you should grow

• Tips for communicating with your team effectively

Located in the historic village of Mooresville, Alabama, (population: 58), 1818 Farms is named for the year Mooresville was incorporated, one year before Alabama became a state. The happy animal residents on their little farm include the rare Babydoll Southdown sheep, mini pigs, a Nubian goat and a Great Pyrenees guardian dog. In an adjacent field, over 12,000 flowers show off their best colors and blooms, having been lovingly and carefully tended to, bringing beauty today and providing seeds for future seasons. 1818 Farms also manufactures a line of hand crafted bath and lifestyle products that are available in retail locations throughout the United States. They recently launched our new "From The Farm" product line with a direct feature on their dried flowers!

Photography: Olivia Reed Photography Marty Bibee, Laurence McCrary, Heather Bookout Studios

Inspiring the Next Generation of Flower Farmers

Team Flower Member Heather Champney has a beautiful job in the floral industry. She’s a teacher at a middle school in Northeast Tennessee where she and her students run a cut flower farm! Over the three years of middle school, the students learn the ins and outs of entrepreneurship and the specifics of running a small farm. She’s here to share their story and inspire you as you look toward to the future of this industry.