Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Annie Sasseville. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Annie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

The name behind Red Door Flowers was born out of a love for two big things in my life. On a very basic level, we have red doors on our barn and a red door entrance into our greenhouse. And that’s where all the magic in the flowers begins. That’s where I start all the seeds which blossom into big beautiful blooms. But perhaps more importantly, I really love the expression on people’s faces when someone opens the door and gets surprised with flowers. It is always this combination of surprise, flattery, joy and gratitude! And I feel so lucky to be the bearer of the flowers in that exact moment. So Red Door Flowers is representative of these two expressions.

Annie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Since I was a small child, I’ve always had a deep love for the outdoors. When I was growing up, my grandmother really encouraged me to always stop and smell the flowers, look up at the blue sky and notice all the changing leaves on the trees in the fall. She reminded me to be aware of all the beauty and that has been an integral part of my love for flower farming. I started vegetable gardening in my late 20s and I fell in love with it immediately. Many years later, I was introduced to growing flowers and I’ve never looked back! My love for vegetable gardening quickly turned into a passion for growing beautiful blooms!

Red Door Flowers now sells blooms to other wedding florists, a local wholesale flower cooperative (Colorado Flower Collective), and designs for many events such as weddings and dinner parties.

I am most proud of the flowers that I have grown myself. It is so important to me that my flowers are locally grown with love. I truly nourish them in every way that I can. And I want my clients to know that I always strive to provide the freshest flowers which are usually harvested within 24 hours of passing them along to others. It is so important to me that the flowers have the longest vase life as possible. So I hydrate them and condition them in a way that ensures they will last a long time inside others’ homes.

I also want to educate the general public on the beauty and value of locally grown flowers. Most people don’t understand that grocery store flowers may be 1-3 weeks old when you buy them. And how is it even possible for those flowers to then have a long vase life? With locally grown flowers, you are getting the freshest product possible and the best value for your money!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

For me, the best way of gaining new clients has been through word of mouth. With flowers, people are often choosing to “gift” them to others. And that is always the best exposure for my business. Every one of our bouquets, whether it is wrapped or in a vase, has our branding on it with a sticker or card on it. And in this way, I hope that people can remember our locally grown flowers when they want to send a gift onto someone else!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Right now, I am dealing with a disease called aster yellows at my flower farm, spread by leafhoppers. There is no cure for it, and it can live in perennial weeds throughout the winter months. So I am learning how to pivot and build resilience at this exact moment! I will need to decide if I can grow the same flowers next year (and risk losing them to this disease again) or if I should pivot and only grow flowers that are less susceptible. I am also trying to balance my love for growing flowers with my enthusiasm for designing them, so my business model may change a bit as I understand how to best navigate these changes and embrace my new reality!

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.reddoorflowersco.com
• Instagram: @reddoorflowerscolorado
• Facebook: @reddoorflowerscolorado