We recently connected with Shylabeth Taylor and have shared our conversation below.

Shylabeth, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

One thing that I feel very passionately about is working closely with other growers. Cut flower farming is a fast growing industry and I believe that it’s important to support one another instead of treat each other as the competition. When I’m contacted for an event, I often find myself reaching out to other flower growers to see what unique blooms they could add to the floral work. I’m constantly bouncing ideas off of other growers and sharing tips about all aspects of the process. We can gain years of experience from one another, without having to actually go through the trial and error process ourselves. I truly believe that there is enough love for flowers from our buyers to allow all of us to find our niche and be able to work as a united industry. I hope that people will look at Catskill Blooms as a place to get the absolute best local flowers for their needs, whether I’m growing them myself or sourcing them from a friend.

Shylabeth, 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?

I love every aspect of growing flowers – preparing the soil, sowing the tiny seeds and watching them sprout, waiting patiently for the first sign of a flower blooming, harvesting flowers rapidly for a few months, letting them die and then going through the cycle again. Our last frost date, the sign that our outdoor growing season is finally here, is my version of Christmas Eve. After that date, May 26th for us, I know that I’ll soon be walking through rows of colorful flowers with my toddlers, hearing the bees buzzing and losing track of time.

I’ve gardened for years now, starting with more vegetables than we could ever eat. Over time I started to plant more and more flowers, falling in love with the rush of excitement when something new starts to bloom. This past year my husband put up a greenhouse for me and my list of “flowers to grow” tripled. That’s when I decided that I’d like to move beyond bringing bouquets to friends’ houses and start selling them at a local farm store and farmers’ market.

I would say that I’m a little more particular about the style of bouquet that I like, which lead me to the idea to have our flowers available to be mixed and matched until the buyer finds a look they love. We do this as a “Blooms Bar” at the market and it’s also available for private events. I want everyone with an interest in flowers to know that they can make arrangements that they love, whether that means a standalone vase of tulips or a whimsical mix of dahlias, cosmos, snapdragons and pennycress. Since announcing my business venture, I have gotten a handful of custom grow orders, which I truly love being able to fulfill. Knowing that these tiny seeds I’m starting are going to be a bride’s dream ceremony backdrop or on the menu at a local restaurant adds an extra bit of excitement to the process.

To be completely honest with you, my dream job would be to grow all of these flowers and not have to leave my garden to sell them. My kids and I spend so much time tending to the flowers, I’m hoping that their love grows for the season just as mine has. Doing something that I love, alongside the people I love is really all that I could ever wish for.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding part about growing and selling cut flowers is sharing the love and excitement for the beauty with others. My son is just as obsessed with beautiful blooms as I am (and even has a greener thumb) which has allowed for countless hours of time together out in the garden and flipping through floral design books. I have the best friends who are always responsive to my random flower questions, have hired me for their events and get just as excited for my ideas as I am. The amount of local flower growers that I have connected with is amazing – we’re continuously bouncing ideas around, asking for advice and sourcing flowers from each other. The customers I talk to, who just light up when speaking about a particular flower they love or one that their grandmother always grew. These relationships are by far the most rewarding things about growing cut flowers.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

My friends are great supporters of my flower business and have not hesitated to ask me to supply flowers for their events. I also have found that local businesses love working with other local businesses and I’ve made a ton of connections with these clientele through instagram and local markets. The best part about it is that most of these businesses are run by one or two people, that actually become good friends. I think it’s really important to keep your business professional but your tone casual and friendly. I have have gotten a large portion of business from just responding to a message on instagram.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.catskillblooms.com
• Instagram: @catskillblooms