I am a former beauty industry publicist and brand development strategist from New York City; a Libran (on the cusp of Virgo) driven by order and organization; a lover of modern art and maximalist design, clean food, a full bodied wine (red or white); dog mama; and student of food justice.

Over 20+ years, I worked with several pioneers of the clean and green beauty movement: Horst Rechelbacher (Aveda), Lisa Levin (Pharmacopia), Ute Leube (Amala), and Sarah Biggers (Clove + Hallow). Ironically, despite everything I knew about plant-based ingredients, responsible sourcing, and sustainable packaging–and considering the intentionality around how we structured brand integrations with likeminded partners–I never once considered the sustainability, seasonality, or source of the flowers I gifted to editors or anyone for that matter.

I have always loved flowers for their intrinsic joyfulness, pop of color, and zen they bring to a space and occasion. I’ve admired those who have fresh flowers around the house, on their nightstand, or punctuating an entry, as an extension of their personal style. Of course, restaurants like Gramercy Tavern in New York and Chez Panisse in Berkeley, are as much known for their heart-stopping flower arrangements are they are for their farm-to-table food.

My own obsession with flowers (and biophilia) is fairly recent, and frankly, took me by surprise.

I developed a love affair with cut flower bouquets in April 2020 during COVID lockdown. While shopping for Mother’s Day arrangements, I noticed the flowers being hawked at me from the various flower buying platforms looked nothing like those dotting my backyard in Napa Valley, CA. Everything was round, stiff, and seemingly homogenous. I couldn’t seem to find what I was looking for, nor could I articulate exactly what it was.

In retrospect, it was soul.

I was looking for flowers that captured the personality and style of our moms, and that were distinctive and original. I wanted flowers that felt connected to their space, moment in time, and that brought light and whimsy to an otherwise dark and confusing time. And, I wanted them to be fresh, clean, healthy, organic–like the food I value.

It turns out this was a tall order that took me a full day of research to the point of confusion, frustration, and exhaustion. In the end, I ordered the flowers, not exactly the ones I wanted, mainly to check the box and complete the assignment before I missed delivery deadlines.

What I learned though shaped my feelings about the flowers I consumed going forward–and gave me a business idea.

I realized the flowers I wanted to send (not just breathtakingly designed, but also, clean and chemical free) weren’t easy to find. Nor was there necessarily a search term to find them. The onus was on me to do the research, and even then, the Google results weren’t totally reliable. There’s also a lot of greenwashing in floristry (with words like ‘farm grown,’ ‘farm fresh,’ which raises additional questions about place and process—again putting the onus on me (the consumer) to do the digging to find what I was searching for.

I thought if I could build a platform (marketplace) where eco-friendly florists could be more easily found by sustainability minded consumers, it would be a win for everyone.

The Flowry (www.theflowry.com) was born:A sustainable floral design hub + marketplace connecting sustainability-driven consumers with eco-friendly florists prioritizing locally grown, seasonal stems, and sustainable design practices.

We vet our florists according to four criteria:

1) prioritizing locally and US grown flowers during the growing season (we allow “vetted” imports during the shoulder season and when US-grown flowers are scarce),
2) non-use of floral foam,
3) non-use of chemical dyes, drying agents, or bleach (which renders flowers non-compostable, aka trash),
4) minimal to non-use of non-biodegradable, non-recyclable, single use plastics

We currently have about 100 eco-friendly floral designers and farmer-florists across the US on our site. Our goal is to reach 500 by end of 2023.

What I’d like readers to understand is: There is nothing easy about this category, or this work. Flowers rely on the health of the planet, and the reliability of the climate, to bloom. When the climate fluctuates, or weather is extreme, it impacts the flowers’ availability and longevity, which in turn, impacts biodiversity, and the natural cycle of life.

Continuing to buy imported flowers, at the expense of the planet, threatens the very existence of the flowers themselves. This conventional, global model is unsustainable. That’s why buying locally as much as possible, and insisting upon clean and chemical free growing, and the non use of floral foam, is so vital to preserving our flower future.

Another thing: Flowers, like food, are perishable. Their value (or cost) shouldn’t be tied to their longevity, as Sue McLeary, a floral artist and educator, points out. Their value lies in how they are cultivated, harvested, designed, and ultimately, the way they communicate what’s often so hard to say, in words, from one person to another; how they make us feel.

Like food, flowers are best when enjoyed in season, clean and chemical free, and grown close to home. Their vase life is greater, and the experience they impart is far more delicious.

Entrepreneurship is an exercise in resiliency every minute of every day.

I’ve questioned my founder fit from minute go.

For starters, I knew nothing about flowers when I founded The Flowry. I didn’t know their names, when they grow, what it takes to grow them, or how to design a flower bouquet or arrangement. I had no idea the majority of flowers (80 percent) are imported from elsewhere. And, I definitely had no awareness of floral foam, or how toxic it is to people and planet!

Early on, a serial beauty industry entrepreneur and CEO of a global vegan fragrance company, asked me: Did I want to be a publisher or did I want to be a brand? A brand of course, I said, not fully understanding the question. (I do now).

At the risk of stating the obvious, it takes significant funding to build a brand in this digital age, to reach the right eyeballs; add an extraordinary amount of time–and subject matter expertise–to be a publisher. None of which I had (or have).

But I did have an idea, the validation from just about everyone I polled that I was onto something, and the grit to build it.

There are several companies and organizations, like The Slow Flowers Society, Certified American Grown, and Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers (ASCFG), working on advancing the the supply side, the farmer-to-florist connection.

I saw an opportunity to grow the consumer demand side, the consumer-to-florist connection, through The Flowry.

As I’ve mentioned, I had no obvious experience launching a floral design marketplace. But, I fell in love with the mission of sustainable floral design–and experienced the quality, diversity, and lastingness firsthand. I believed others would too if they knew the facts and had easy access to designers.

Taking cues from the local food movement, I surmised there was a sizable consumer audience for eco-friendly floral design.

So I did the research, hosted Zoom calls, followed the biggest influencers in and advocates of the sustainable floristry movement, and attended the Slow Flowers annual conference. Conversation after conversation proved my hunch.

But the marketplace was fractured, green-washed, and not easy to find.

I observed how tough it was for me to find an “eco-friendly” or “sustainable” florists in St Louis, MO, Boynton Beach FL, and NYC, for my own Mother’s Day deliveries–because the search terms are still in their infancy–and there are so few compliant (or SEO’d) florists. And I knew (to some degree) what I was searching for! What about all the people who don’t know they have to search for such a thing: locally grown flowers… flowers in season now… clean and chemical free flowers… sustainable bouquets.

I was able to pinpoint a blossoming (pun intended) outlier community of values-driven florists across the US sharing the data, demanding transparency, and advocating for a healthier, more sustainable floral design trade–starting with local flowers and foam free design.

I leaned into my brand development chops, did the market research, identified The Flowry brand differentiator (learned it’s a lot harder to do for yourself than another), and drafted our story, mission, vision, values, and purpose.

At the time, I saw The Flowry as three distinctive businesses:

1) a hub of eco-friendly floral designers,
2) an online shop filled with floral inspired goods created by makers sharing our values around environmental preservation and social justice, and
3) a flower scheduling platform leveraging our eco-friendly floral community.

So far, we’ve only realized two out of three, and we’ve recently identified a fourth: To build a backend marketing curriculum for florist members that helps them grow their businesses and brands in all the ways this increasingly complex retail environment requires.

As I’ve done for countless clients before, I envisioned the website architecture, user journey, and hired a development team to build The Flowry. I wrote every piece of content (blogs, emails, social posts, press releases, website), and engaged a former beauty editor colleague for finesse.

I launched an early version of theflowry.com in Beta test as a showcase for florists I aimed to recruit. It was clunky, but illustrated the concept. I knew I would refine it once I had florist interest and support.

I pre-launched in Q4 2021 with a PWYW (pay what you want) promotion for florists that lasted about 30 days. I wanted to not just test the concept, but also the pricing structure–and determine what florists were willing to pay (if anything).