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

Celia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I hope to leave a legacy of hope for tomorrow, that what we plant and start now will lead to abundance, care of each other, and a thriving relationship between us and nature and each other. I hope that my legacy will create an idea of love and passion, commitment and grit. After I’m gone I hope I am remembered for my strength, my determination and my love for my family, my flowers, my animals and the relationships with nature that I am a steward of. I want to brilliantly and passionately inspire people to pursue balance and happiness and work and life that makes you whole. I hope people say things like “I am inspired by her life work and profession” and that I do something so enormous with my life that is leads to others happiness and life fulfillment. I have found so many things from farming and working with my hands and my flowers that I could only wish those opportunities unto others.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a first generation, female owned and operated flower farm. I farm specialty cut flowers on our family farm in Yanceyville, Caswell County. I was first introduced to flower farming while I was in graduate school while talking to another fellow student after catching a glimpse of a popular photo of a truck bed full of dahlias. I had no idea that you could grow flowers and that you could grow such a beautiful flower! Like, I had never heard of a flower farmer before. Wow was I in for something exciting. After I graduated with my masters in sustainability studies my husband and I moved to my family farm where I began practicing making all the mistakes. I started out having an 8’X10′ garden and now I farm on almost 2 acres of land throughout the year, by myself with my 3 year old daughter in tow ( and with some help here and there of course!). We bring safe, regeneratively grown specialty cut flowers to our community, local floral designers and florists, as well as people across North and South Carolina; especially the kinds of flowers you cant get from imported wholesalers and grocery stores. We also do special occasion arrangements and floral design for events and weddings. I am most proud of how much we have grown since those first few years of growing flowers. I went from knowing absolutely knowing nothing of growing anything to becoming a well seasoned farmer that has the knowledge and advice to share with others, as well as the quality of our flowers; holy moly they are so good! I can’t believe I actually grow them they are so good! I also incredibly honored to learn from others who teach me to be a better farmer, a better steward of my land, and from nature and the flowers themselves.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2019 I was farming in a very different way. I grew a little bit of everything, in every color an in a small field. I focused on growing flowers for unique mixed bouquets that I sold throughout my community. in late 2019 I learned that we were going to have a daughter and began having to adjust how I grew, knowing that our lives would be very different in the coming year. What we didnt plan on was having to go through this incredible new change with an entire world pandemic! We had our daughter in April, right at the beginning of the everything shutting down. What a wonderful and scary and slow time it was. We soaked up all the precious time becoming new parents but I had to totally rethink how I farmed and sold my flowers. I began adding more perennials for long term flower productions, I found wholesale accounts and avenues to get more of my flowers into the hands of people who used flowers every day, and I changed how and what I grew. As our daughter grew older we refined our crops and plans, grew into larger fields and found ways to grow with nature and in ways that felt right. Growing the way we grow flowers and through wholesale pathways have allowed me to balance my life with my family and growing my passion; its been literally life changing.

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

We aim to foster a lasting relationship that’s built on trust, quality, and communication. We want to consistently show up for our clients, whether they are our CSA customers or our floral designer clients. We work incredibly hard to bring the best quality product every time, which to us is the best way to create loyalty. Why would you need to go buy flowers anywhere else if you know you can get the best from us? We also love to interact with fellow farmers, customers and clients on our social media accounts and through email with our newsletters we occasionally send out. We are also working towards creating more creative content on our social media accounts to help educate and share the information that we gather on our journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: savagedaughterflowers.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/savagedaughterflowers/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caswellflowerco/