A Flower Subscription Service

This started out as purely a dream during my last few semesters in college—one of those unlikely dreams where you wish you could make it happen but it feels extremely unrealistic at the time. In a college course focused solely on cut flowers, we learned of this woman who started a flower subscription service within her big city (Farmgirl Flowers is her company's name, and I have her to thank). She bought her product from local growers and had several delivery people riding around the city on bikes, dropping off flowers. I was mesmerized by this idea of taking a trade that can be fast-paced, all while being both physically and creatively taxing, and making it feel more simple, sustainable, and authentic. I spent the remainder of the class fantasizing about a concept like this for Taylor Rae Bouquet. I remember texting one of my sisters and husband an enthusiastic and very, very long paragraph of my newfound daydream. And for the next year or so, it really stayed just that—a dream. It didn’t go anywhere, BUT it also never died. Thankfully.

After a full year of being unsure if this could ever happen within my small business, of slowly pulling ideas, rough drafts, resources, and plans together, Taylor Rae Bouquet’s Subscription Service started to take shape. In March 2020, I took my first big step towards making this an actual reality. We made a video for this new service. The intent of this video was to go through the entire process of setting up a flower subscription while showing how straightforward it can be for the customer. I want people to feel the simplicity of adding flowers to their life.

After many long hours of rough drafts and sketches, it really was my husband, Dallin, who brought this promotional video to life — all while perfectly capturing my vision. Coincidentally, my little sister was visiting the same weekend we were filming, and we persuaded her to be the model. She was perfect (and I was grateful because I was not thinking through every scene logistically. It would have been a bit harder to hand flowers to myself—which was a scene we needed in the video). We had a lot of good laughs. I can’t even admit how many takes we took of the scene where flowers are simply placed on a TV stand. Kudos to all the hand models out there.

Although it took some time, that was honestly the fun part. And that became even more evident as I spent the next several months finalizing the fine details with lots of (not so fun) behind-the-scenes things: planning out the logistics, setting up a website storefront, finding funds, making content, advertising, etc.

Amongst the busy office work, I had one final STUNNING photo shoot to help get content for the launch...which deserves it’s own journal entry all by itself. It was there, surrounded by supportive people, seeing my visions brought to life and knowing this was the final step before our launch date, that it all became real.

My little daydream that was born in a college classroom grew into a business that day. The final few weeks before the launch became late nights, early mornings, too many technical difficulties, hours of more brainstorming, then inevitably, a dream come true. And as of December 8, 2020 the Taylor Rae Bouquet Subscription Service was in full flight.

All I’ve wanted to do since I found this passion of floral design is to bring more flowers into people’s homes and lives—that’s it. I’ve put a lot of thought, love, and passion into this project with a great deal of help, advice, wisdom, and creativity from other people—which I still seek out. I look forward to putting all of it to good use and placing more flowers in your hands.

If you haven’t already, visit our Subscription section within our website. Lot’s of planning, dreaming, and love will be behind every arrangement brought to your door. That I can promise.

Picture Credit: Dallin Sheldon

The Flower in Your Hand

For the past year or so, I have been slowly making sustainable and ecological changes in my personal life and this shift has begun carrying over to my business—and rightly so! I have many new goals, plans, and visions for Taylor Rae Bouquet, but I won’t overwhelm you quite yet. I’ll start with one change that will appear simple, but has had a significant impact already: using locally grown flowers and greens.

Foraging in my area (when appropriate) and sourcing from nearby flower farms has been an enjoyable habit to make. It is important to mention that this change in practice may not always be possible or economical as I have to take in account where we live. Utah has cold winters, hot summers, and a lack of rainfall, so local sources may be too limited at times. Although this may seem like a con at first, it has an admirable silver lining. Knowing that certain flowers aren't available at certain times, I can better appreciate and utilize what IS growing and thriving in any given season. That will trickle down to you, the one’s receiving the flowers in the end. We can all create a deeper connection with our environment and what it has to offer.

This change reminded me of a book I read in college called The 50 Mile Bouquet: Seasonal, Local and Sustainable Flowers by Debra Prinzing. Overall, Prinzing urges her readers to help bring the flower industry back to what it was—a green and sustainable trade. She reminds people of the simpler times within the world of farmers, florists and flower enthusiasts. Taking us back to “...our grandmother's gardens, and to the flower farms that used to surround every city, offering sweet peas in spring and dahlias in late summer and cherry blossoms in February” (9). This industry could “slow down” (and it has already, for many people) just as the food industry has—bringing an emphasis to the slow flower movement.

“How did something as natural and ephemeral [lasting for a very short time] as a flower spawn a global industry? And what, if anything, had we lost along the way?” (9)

This quote struck me, and had me thinking, “What have we lost along the way?” I put my thoughts down in the form of a list. You may relate to a few of these and/or have some thoughts of your own to add. Here are a few of mine to get us started:

• We’ve lost a connection between producer and consumer. Think of the last time you picked up flowers from the grocery store. Did you think about where they were grown, or more importantly who grew them?

• Without that personal connection, it's easy for the product (flowers in this case) to lose value. If a face or name can't be placed with the person who put the seed in the ground, tended to the growing flower, and eventually cut the stem, it’s easy and understandable to overlook the value of what's being held in hand. Flowers are so EASILY accessible and convenient these days that it's hard to give the product much thought.

• We’ve lost some perspective. Just as it's hard to picture where the tied up trash bag ends up after it's taken out or where the water comes from that spews out the faucet, that bundle of flowers you have in your hand took a great deal of effort to get to where it is.

To understand the need for “slowing down” picture the rows and rows of premade bouquets sold at the grocery store. They can come across as nearly perfect, making it hard to imagine they were grown in gritty soil, doused in rain and sunshine. When compared to a vase full of freshly cut, beautifully imperfect garden roses—one can then see (and feel) the difference. Pair that vision with walking away with a newly wrapped bouquet at a farmers market or bringing in a bucket full of fresh flowering branches from your own garden. It’s hard to put words to, but the difference in sensations and emotions is evident.

I feel this change of reception comes down to the process a flower goes through to get into a consumers hand. These cellophane wrapped bouquets are bought without much thought on their source, how they are grown, or the environmental and financial costs it took to have such a perishable, luxury commodity in possession. Purchasing flowers from local fields, regardless of the season, helps the buyer better respect the cycle of each season and what each has to offer. It gives the farmer down the road an opportunity to share what they’ve worked hard to grow, to place a new variety of a well known flower in your hand and to bring some freshness back to an innately raw and natural business.

This authenticity, personality and sustainability can be grown and nurtured back to life. Through buying locally sourced flowers, a seemingly simple step, the buyer is creating a more natural and sustainable way to bring flowers into their lives. You can become more involved with the outside world, your local surroundings and the charm of fresh blossoms. I remember being drawn to this paradigm shift when I read the book then, and I’m grateful for the space to make actual changes now.

I want to help you feel a greater connection and appreciation to the flowers you are being handed and what better way than to use flowers grown by our very own neighbors. I’ve been able to connect with several local farmers already through the Utah Cut Flowers Farm Association! They have a beautiful and informative website. After clicking “Find your Local Flower Farmer,” a list will pull up full of farmers throughout Utah with links to their respective website and location. In the future I will share some more personal accounts with these new local farms I am sourcing your flowers from, and in the meantime, hopefully you can create some experiences with them as well!

So here’s to sustainable changes and filling your home with Utah’s finest florals and greens.

Flowers grown by: Wasatch Blooms

Picture Credit: Dallin Sheldon

Cited Sources:

Prinzing, Debra, et al. The 50 Mile Bouquet: Seasonal, Local and Sustainable Flowers. St. Lynn's, 2012.

More Flowers

“More flowers, please?” This request has been guiding my creativity and direction for quite some time now. I know how flowers make me feel—appreciated, loved, thought of, and special—and I want others to feel that same way (and more often). Even when flowers are used for more somber events or to go along with a “Get Well Soon” card, I’ve noticed they still bring the same feelings of genuine love and care. A simple bouquet of fresh flowers can say a lot more than just “thank you” or “I love you.” Oftentimes, they even say it a lot better than we could.

And because flowers have this intimate, genuine and simple voice, I want their influence to be included more in day to day life. In this endeavor, The Addition of Flowers Memoir was created.

This will be a public journal of sorts and I look forward to sharing my passion, ideas, and projects in this new way. My vision is to share with you, whomever you may be, how flowers can be used and incorporated into our lives more than we may realize. And if you ever ask “why are you sharing any of this?” Think back to the last time you purposely set down a vase full of fresh flowers you were just given (or you gave someone else that experience), and think of how you felt in that moment—that’s my why.

Of course, I personally know it is not feasible or even desired to purchase or receive lavish arrangements every day. If that were to ever be possible for someone, I would imagine flowers as a gift wouldn’t be appreciated or valued as much as they are now. However, I know there are other subtle, simple, and impactful ways we can use flowers more. This is what has been on my mind for years, and I look forward to getting these thoughts on “paper.” I hope some of these shared thoughts spark new ideas for yourself on how to introduce flowers more in day to day life.

My current plan is to write once a month—at least for now as this is a new venture for me! I’ll do my best to keep them simple, helpful and focused on beautiful flowers + greens (because that’s why we are reading through this, right?).

Subscribe below and discover what the addition of flowers can do within your own life.