Personally, I would like to meet someone who doesn't love flowers. On a side-note, I totally understand if you have severe allergies or some condition that prevents you from loving flowers....I digress....
It's almost predictable, the smile that spreads across a face when you gift them a bouquet or surprise someone with a large vase of blooms. The colors, the fragrance, the magnificence - should I say more?
My love for flowers definitely came from my Mom. Every Spring, we would visit numerous local greenhouses to purchase annuals and hanging baskets for porch, patio and gardens. As I would stroll the aisles of the balmy greenhouses, I quickly became acquainted with varieties of plants and how they would evolve throughout the growing season. Probably from the age of 8, I knew way more than any other kid about geraniums, vinca vines, spikes, and petunias! It was always fun watching the flowers grow throughout the summer, watching them evolve and fill out the planters.
As I grew older, my Mom started experimenting with perennial plants in a boarder garden. Perennials seemed practical to me, returning year after year and blooming with confidence. Mom even allowed me a small space for my own perennial garden which included a clematis, tulips, and a bleeding heart. It wasn't big, but it was a start! Fast forward to high school and the career planning, college applications, and thinking about what I wanted to do for the future. I knew, the one thing that I loved was flowers, and I didn't know how that would translate to a "career."
Alas, adulthood awaited and the constant pressure of "how will you make money" was weighing heavily on me. Eventually, I enroll at a local technical college to pursue my Marketing degree. Over the years, I worked for some great companies and got to learn a lot....but I still wanted to play with flowers. Finding time to grow my own vegetables, or grow a flower garden was always a pleasure and I loved the challenge.
A few years ago, I transitioned from a corporate career to working at a local flower shop. I quickly felt at home with an overwhelming sense of happiness. During my time at the flower shop, I had the opportunity to plant annuals, help in the greenhouse, select tropical plants from our wholesalers, make beautiful floral arrangements, visit our local wholesaler and pick flowers from their cooler, as well as creating bouquets and arrangements for weddings. I also had the opportunity to work on a local flower farm where we grew flowers and sold them to local floral shops. I love a working hard, and I got to work with flowers on top of it - WIN WIN! After this experience, I moved halfway across the country for the opportunity to work at a floral wholesaler.
In a few years, I saw different aspects of the floral industry. From growing to arranging flowers, I had many questions about traditional practices and held on to an idea of running my own non-traditional, non-typical floral business one day. Life never moves in a linear fashion. Throwing you curves and adding speedbumps, maybe a sinkhole here and there. In a nutshell, this was the summary of my life. At times I thought I would have to give up the idea of doing something that I loved.
But I don't give up that easily.
After meeting my "better half", we started talking about building a home. Initially, I wanted to be close to town so we didn't have to commute. It seemed practical, but in reality it wasn't. We discussed what we wanted in a property and quickly realized that we weren't going to be happy looking at lots close to town. We wouldn't have room for a greenhouse for growing our veggies, we would be stacked on top of neighbors, and we definitely didn't want to be limited to what we could do with our property. An option that was presented was building on his 8 acres outside of Shawano. After deep consideration and contemplation, I told him I would be willing to move and build in this area, but under a few conditions....
I get a greenhouse where we can grow vegetables and flowers year-round. This was an easy sell because he loves gardening as much as I do, so here we are! I am excited to start planting perennials and flowers that I was familiar with from the floral industry. The thought of creating my own magical space with a botanical garden feel is slowly becoming a reality.
Sustainability and conservation is a big deal, and I did not want to overlook this with my business. Even though the floral industry is bright and beautiful, there is also another side that most people don't even realize exists.
- The majority of flowers you purchase at grocery stores and traditional flower shops travel long distances to make it into a vase or bouquet.
- A lot of flowers are grown in South America, Central America, Europe, and Africa.
- Along with the carbon footprint of travel, all of those flowers need to be shipped with care in protective wraps and heavy boxes.
- Traditional design practices that utilize a lot of plastic, dense floral foam, and disposable items can be perceived as wasteful.
The mission with Archer & Bliss Floral is to change the way we provide flowers in an environmentally conscious way. We are looking forward to growing several of our own varieties on the farm, sourcing flowers from local Wisconsin flower farmers, reduce our waste by using reusable materials, and utilizing our green and solar energy to power the farm.
We invite you to join the sustainable flower movement with Archer & Bliss Floral. Archer & Bliss Floral specializes in providing flowers and floral arrangements for weddings and special events in Northeast and North Central Wisconsin.