We recently connected with John Miller and have shared our conversation below.

John , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

Yes! The standard florist goes to wholesalers and purchases flowers grown in South America or Holland. As a Farmer-Florist, I grow most of my own flowers. If I do not have flowers, I try to source them as locally as possible. This reduces carbon emissions and keeps more money in the local community.

That said, I tell my customers that I only deal with local flowers, including seasonality in colors, and varieties from month to month.

John , 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?

My name is John Miller, and I own a Johns Plant Adventures business. I grew up in Michigan where I developed an interest in vegetable flower farming at 13. I worked at a nursery there that specialized in annuals, perennials, and tropicals before moving to Arizona in 2015.

I went to school at ASU from 2015-2020 where I gathered 2 degrees, B.A n in Business Communications and a B.S. in Sustainable Horticulture. During my time at ASU, I had three internships. The first one was my favorite at the Desert Botanical Garden, the second was Disney World Horticulture, and the third was at Brightview Landscape.

I started farming after I graduated and I tried growing cut flowers for the first time and I was hooked after that. I loved growing flowers and the idea of only using a local flower that was in season in my designs. I wanted a way to incorporate my love for horticulture with the world and growing flowers definitely fills that void.

Another big part of my business is selling flower seedlings. A lot of home gardeners have gotten on the bandwagon of growing their own cutflower gardens, and I’ve loved helping them grow their passions through providing seedlings.

I now sell flowers at a bar in gilbert called ‘Hair of the Dog’ and on doordash. I Sell flowers to florists as well for wedding and events.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

Buying seeds and tubes can be extremely costly at the beginning of the season. I bought tons of seeds WAY more that I needed in hopes that I would be able to grow some extra plants to be able to sell. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to sell them or not, but I make a post to pre-sell seedings and put it out on Instagram and people loved it! I was able to pay for all of my seeds that season with the pre-sale I posted.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Building a social media platform can always feel like a daunting task. One of the biggest things that have made my journey of social media success is just being myself. I share a lot about how I operate my flower farm on a day-to-day basis. I share my failures, and my success and put my face out there for people to put a name to. The last one is super important, people want to see what you are doing but they also what to see you!

Adapting to social media is also always a learning curve. Instagram is now prioritizing reels for views on your posts so that has been a fun challenge to make.

Contact Info:

• Website: johnsplantadventure.com
• Instagram: @johns_plant_adventuers

Image Credits
Shop Click Bloom