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

Kole & Kylie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you manage your own social media?

I (Kylie/lil sis) manage all our Social Media and CRM tools in-house. I’m frequently looking at page traffic, data dashboards across platforms, and adapting to the things we learn after analyses. Strategy is a big part of brand marketing and requires a well thought-out campaign, planning on planning, collaboration, and attention to detail.

We are unique in that we are a small, family-owned business, and each have our own avenues of expertise. Kole (Grower/big bro) manages the Greenhouses, grows ALL the flowers, while I’m on the Operations Management & Floral Design side.

Everything you see on our pages is 100% sustainably grown by us (never outsourced) and developed by Team BlackDog!

Kole & Kylie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Our family took the plunge in 2016; purchasing 6 acres to supply hops for local breweries. Over the years we found that competing with west coast pricing proved to be difficult in central NC. We shifted our focus to hops propagation for local growers and partnered with breweries to educate our fellow beer-lovers. Our lives changed during a serendipitous moment at the Southeast hops conference in Asheville a few years ago. One of our colleagues grew flowers to attract customers to their brewery. Oh hey! Our grower has a background in cut flower research and soil chemistry, so why not try out flowers? So we started to learn the language on a production scale. Our main crops – sunflowers, zinnia, cosmos, gladiolus, gomphrena, and celosia have been staples throughout the years. Ever since, we’ve been on a mission to supply our Raleigh-friends with the freshest cut flowers! We began growing veggies on a production scale in response to COVID, and we give them out for free to our small town community that has helped us out so much. Our goal is to continue to learn more about the technical aspects of growing flower crops so that we are more able to give back to our community!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

By attending MidTown Market in Raleigh, we heard customer feedback first-hand. Some folks may not realize the work that goes behind the flower, and from seed to surface, it can be a tricky road to navigate. Market taught us how to be Small Business Owners, which is so different from just farming. Not everyone will love your product 100% of the time, whether that’s quality/quantity/time and effort, take in all the feedback, and keep going.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

Instagram Story Sale saved us last year! The Market was cancelled due to a storm that morning, but we had SO many bouquets prepped and ready to go. I was bummed, and we also needed the $$ for farm bills, so I started thinking of all the ways to get these sold. Without ever trying this before, I posted 1 bouquet and it sold instantly… before I knew it – ALL the bouquets were sold. This kept us alive during December and became an excellent outlet of communication for our seasonally changing florals.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://blackdog-blooms.square.site/
• Instagram: @blackdog_blooms