We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Noella Chung a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Noella, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

Cut flowers used to be a US agricultural crop until the government passed laws that sent the production overseas to South America. This 52 billion dollar industry imports fresh flowers from South America, Europe, Asia, Canada, and Australia daily filtering through major ports.

In recent years, similar to the slow food movement, the slow flowers movement is gaining traction through both large farms, but also a tremendous amount of small growers.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started growing to take care of our land. My husband and daughter were out walking one day and decided to take a handful of dirt to see if we could hear what we were supposed to do with this land. We all heard some form of “be productive.” It baffled me. Be productive with what? I knew vegetable farming was out of the question. There were too many critters around here. That’s when I discovered that there was this growing movement of people growing flowers and the rest is history.

Locally grown flowers is about connecting to a time and place. It’s about embracing the beautiful limitations of seasonality and environment. It roots to you home and the land beneath your feet and the entire environment around you—the good, bad and the ugly. It’s life and it’s beautiful.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

The best help for me in my business has been discovering Mindset Coaching through Charlotte Smith. I started listing to her podcast, The Profitable Mindset and then signed up for her group coaching. Since being in her program and learning about mindset management, there has been a faster upleveling in my business.

Now, I’m training to become a coach. While her niche is farmers, the coaching is truly for everyone.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

I have been growing my email list and learning the skill of marketing through relationship building. The biggest help in overcoming the hurdle of marketing is to think of serving my customers and understanding that I bring joy, beauty and connection to them.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.morningsideblooms.com
• Instagram: @morningsideblooms
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/morningsideblooms

Image Credits
Noella Chung, Morningside Blooms LLC