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

Kathleen , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Thistle & Quince started in 2018 in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. After having my daughter, I started taking an online certification in Floral Design through NYIAD. I studied Landscape Architecture and Forestry in university and I’ve always loved plants, flowers and design so I was very interested in the class. After finishing the course, I reached out to a local florist for an internship where I had more hands on training in floristry.

At that time, we were living in korea as part of the Camp Humphreys community which is an army base in south korea. There’s a lot of service members, their families and civilians that work and lived there but the language barrier has a always been a challenge for everyone that get stationed there. Since I went to a korean university, I was fluent in Korean and english and so I’ve thought that it will be nice to have a florist in the area that can help american families with their floral needs. I started posting pictures of my arrangements on facebook and it caught a lot of interest in the community.

I started advertising for Valentine’s Day and Mother’s day on first couple of months and I started offering weekly & Monthly floral subscriptions and even expanded on dry flowers. I got so excited on the idea of having my own floral studio and and making my designs into reality.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Kathleen Lenczyk, I am active duty military but I am pursuing my passion in floristry while serving the country. I am a mom to may beautiful daughter, Francesca and a wife to my husband, Joseph.

Thistle & Quince is a small floral studio that specializes in Boho Dry Flowers. With being active duty military, I don’t have the time to offer fresh flowers at the moment and that’s why i ended up focusing on Dry & Preserved Flowers. I started thistle and quince in south korea but due to some circumstances, I decided to come to the states and join the armed forces. After finishing my military training,I missed working with flowers so much so I decided to pursue my passion for flowers again. On the weekends, I started making arrangements and started advertising online.. Because of my previous portfolio and experience, people in the community reached out to me and that’s when I decided to bring back T&Q.

From the start I’ve always had a very distinct style when it comes to floral arrangements and bouquets. I love to use different textures to make organic and garden inspired designs. What sets us apart from other local florist in the area is that we use highest quality dry flowers that we source out of California & Australia. Majority of the flower varieties that we use in our designs are uncommon to the area. I love incorporating Australia and South Africa’s native flowers called Protea & Banksia in our designs because of their unique looks. We also source naturally dried flowers from local farms all over MO.

I am most proud that we have maintained quality and improved our designs even after transitioning from South Korea to MO. With perseverance, I was able to establish our LLC, find reliable suppliers and expanded our business in the wedding industry. From 2 weddings in 2022, we have 10 weddings for 2023 and started booking for 2024. We strive to become better and better each day and want to show to people that flowers isn’t just flowers. They are a big part of our everyday life and make moments even more special. I wanted to give the option to our customers of experiencing contemporary floral design in our small town of Saint Robert.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I started this business with only a few hundred dollars. At first I only invested on a few flowers and vases as well as some packaging materials for them to look professional. It all started in my extra bedroom with a few tables and boxes. After getting some orders for valentine’s day and mother’s day, I reinvested whatever I made in getting more supplies such as shears, ribbons and bouquet wrapping papers. After that year, I realized that I want to show people that I am a professional and that I can offer more services than what I started with, I finally set up my extra room as an actual studio using a small amount from our tax return that year. The largest investment that I made was getting a floral fridge. I wanted to keep my expenses low so everything that I can make, i do it myself such as stickers and labels.

After I reopen T&Q here in the US, I basically did the same steps. I keep reinvesting whatever I make to slowly expand T&Q. Whatever I made out of the weddings that I design for, I return them back to the business, by doing this, I avoid debt and pressure and it gives me the freedom to enjoy, and watch my business grow every single day.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I started T&Q in Korea but due to my divorce on my previous marriage, I had to make a decision of joining the military to help set up my life here in the US. I have never thought of giving up floristry but I knew I needed to go out and get more experience to be successful. The military has thought me incredible discipline which has helped me even more as a business owner and a member of the community. I am currently transitioning out of the military to finally pursue my business and floristry full time and see where our brand and business take us.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thistleandquince.com
• Instagram: @thistleandquincefloral
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/thistleandquince

Image Credits
(Only) Wedding photos by Complete Weddings and Events St. louis Bride: Abigail Peters