We were lucky to catch up with Jamie Sammons-radliff recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jamie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

I have always believed in the line “If you build it, they will come.” …
I stepped out of college with a bachelors degree in plant science with an idea of putting my two loves, floral design and growing, together and making some sort of business out of it. I had worked at a greenhouse and nursery for years prior and really fell in love with growing and watching those baby seeds grow into something beautiful. After attending college, I took a few floral design classes and found I was able to express my love for art through a new medium, flowers.
I thought of the idea of putting these concepts together, growing my own flowers for my floral designs. I knew I couldn’t have been the first person to come up with this idea so I did a little research and found that the profession I was seeking had a name, Farmer-florist.

I went back to the greenhouse where I was working at the time and spoke with my boss about my idea. He graciously told me, “Use 1/4 acre of the land here and grow whatever your heart desires.” He designated me some space in the greenhouse and I happily seeded and tended to my first baby plants after work hours.

I tended to those babies for months before they were ready to be planted out in the field. We worked the land and planted each plant with love and good intention. I had no idea what was going to happen next. The plants were in, growing and happily blooming throughout the summer months. At this time, I created a name for my business and gathered all the documentation saying I was official and could legally sell my flowers. Jayflora was created but who was I selling to?
Isn’t that the big question of the day whenever you are starting your own business? Who is my market?

I knew I wanted my future target market to be engaged couples. I loved floral design and loved the idea of making someone’s wedding day extra special with unusual homegrown flowers. Flowers that were not flown in from overseas, flowers that were local and homegrown with love. I was new to the design world. Who is going to hire someone so fresh to the business? How do I even get the word out about my flowers?

Back to the quote “If you build it, they will come.”
I planted the field with no plans, only that I knew I wanted to create this business and I was so passionate about it.
The flowers bloomed and gosh were they beautiful!
So beautiful that it started to draw people in. People would stop just to look at the flowers I grew and ask about them.
Next thing I know, a young lady strolled through the flowers and asked if I designed wedding flowers. I was completely honest with her and said the only experience I had was the floral design certificate I received in school and that I hadn’t designed a wedding yet, but that I would be delighted to if she was okay with my lack of experience.
She took a leap of faith and believed in me and hired me on the spot to design her wedding flowers.
I couldn’t have asked for a better first time client experience. It was meant to be as she said they were getting married on their family tree farm that had a workshop that I could work out of the day of the wedding.
I piled flowers into my little makeshift covered trailer that I pulled with my small Mazda car and drove to their tree farm on the wedding day and poured my heart into creating her florals.

As my confidence increased, I invested in a few more educational floral design workshops and I was booking weddings for years to come.

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 am a Farmer-Florist who specializes in growing and designing with cut flowers. I own Jayflora Designs & Flower Farm in Fonda, New York. Here on our 12 acre farm we grow a vast variety of annuals, perennials and woody shrubs. Everything we grow is used for our special events, weddings, roadside flower cart, CSA program and we also offer wholesale to other florists.

I started the business in May of 2013 with a big passion for growing and designing. After testing the waters and growing on a small patch of land at a greenhouse and nursery operation I was working at, I decided to make the big move and start a farm at my home with the help from my partner, Jed. We starting building up the farm in 2015 and haven’t looked back. Today the farm has 4 high tunnel greenhouses, 1 propagation greenhouse, 2 small tunnel greenhouses, a barn studio, a tulip shed and a new glasshouse small events space.

The farm has been a labor of love. It definitely isn’t the easiest job and there’s been lots of hard days and struggles but when I get to look out over the flowers each day, I feel a sense of accomplishment. Seeing our customers with smiles on their faces and spreading the smiles to loved ones with each flower bouquet given, it brings me such joy. I enjoy spreading the happiness and when the hard days hit hard, those smiles are what keeps me moving forward.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Under Promise, Over Deliver

That’s our motto when it comes to providing a service or floral design to our clients.

Farming works directly with mother nature herself and with that we make no guarantees with specific varieties of flowers. Granted, we have been farming a long time now and can make predictions as to what usually is in season, but anything can happen; drought, flood, tornado, hail, you name it. These kinds of things are out of our control. We never make promises we can’t keep.
We have had some pretty amazing clients that are usually coming to our farm because they love supporting a local farm and are more than understanding that we may not have every flower they desire in season. They are happy to work with seasonality and understand they are coming to a farm and not a traditional floral shop.

We make big arrangements and stuff our designs full with the best and freshest blooms we have to offer.
Every arrangement I make is an art, I don’t stop adding florals until I am satisfied with the look and style. If that means I have to add in a few extra flowers that the client didn’t pay for, I’m doing it. They deserve the extra stems, they are my biggest supporters, why shouldn’t I give a little extra as a way to say, “Hey, Thanks for supporting my business, I appreciate you!”

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

My business partner, Jed is now my husband.

Honestly, Jayflora would not be where it is today without his hard work and devotion to making my dreams come true.
He maintains the grounds, operates the machinery and is quite the builder. Basically whenever I get a crazy new idea in my head, he makes it come to life. I may be the person that customers see when they visit the farm but Jed is the guy in the back making sure all the parts are working the way they should. He’s the glue holding it together.

Jed and I met when I was a student studying Plant Science at college. He was working as an Instructional Support Technician. We only knew of each other in passing until I later graduated and went back to the college for an event and decided to sit next to him at the lunch gathering. I must admit, I had always found him endearing and wanted to get to know him better. We later exchanged numbers and little did he know what he had gotten himself into.
A marriage and two kids later, we are still happy as ever, even if he grumbles a bit when I tell him my latest ideas and what new projects I have in store for us, hehe.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jayfloradesigns.com
• Instagram: @Jayflora_designs
• Facebook: Jayflora Designs

Image Credits

Courtney Linden Photography
Keith Banta Photography
Jamie Sammons Radliff