Botanical Brouhaha Podcast

In this episode, Natalie (my BB podcast co-host), Meg, and Erin of Native Poppy sit down with me to talk about Flower Moments, their new book. We talk about everything: the 95-page proposal, the agent they emailed until she wrote back, and the publisher who came along at the perfect time. They also share what it took to write and photograph a floral design book around full-time jobs, young kids, and the two biggest flower holidays of the year. Along the way, you'll hear about a shoot where they built every project in reverse, a DoorDashed bagel, a tour bus that no one has offered yet, and the honest truth about how much money they'll make from the book. They wrote Flower Moments because they wanted anyone to be able to pick up a book and feel invited to play with flowers. It's a funny, generous conversation, and I think it will leave you feeling that a big, slow dream is possible.

You can find show notes and more episodes of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast at botanicalbrouhaha.com, and you can find Amy on IG at either @botanicalbrouhaha or @bloomtrustco and Natalie at @hey.nataliegill or @native_poppy

This episode of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast was produced by Joel McGee. Original music by Landon McGee.

Marsha Parker is back on the podcast two and a half years after her first visit in Ep. 118, just before she retired from teaching high school and devoting her time to growing her floral business. A thriving three-time cancer survivor, she now runs Refined Gatherings full-time as a social enterprise, offering floral workshops for cancer survivors and social and emotional learning workshops for teens. She won the 2025 Flowering with Purpose grant from Bloom Trust Co and stretched the grant money to produce flowers and education for a school workshop, a photo shoot, and a charity auction. She also shares what changed once she stopped comparing herself to other florists. Hint: she began attracting clients who hire her for who she is as an artist and what her business stands for!

This episode of the Botanical Brouhaha Podcast is brought to you by:

Madrid Blooms

Design Talks. Workshops. Installations.

The European floral congress shaping the future of botanical design. MADRID BLOOMS brings together acclaimed designers, professionals, and students to
learn and explore new visual languages and push
the boundaries of floral artistry.

You can find show notes and more episodes of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast at botanicalbrouhaha.com, and you can find Amy on IG at either @botanicalbrouhaha or @bloomtrustco and Natalie at @hey.nataliegill or @native_poppy

This episode of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast was produced by Joel McGee. Original music by Landon McGee.

We're back with Semia Dunn who first joined us on the BB podcast back in Episode 35, sharing how she bought a flower shop at 22 and later launched Flowers by Semia (which was later rebranded as SEMIA) and then The Floral Reserve, a wholesale flower company (built by a florist, for florists!). In this catch-up episode, Semia returns to reflect on what's changed and what hasn't. She talks candidly about growing her team, breaking into destination weddings, building a new e-commerce system for the wholesale business, and holding onto the values that got her here. It's a grounded, honest look at what scaling a floral business actually takes, and what stays the same no matter how big things get.

Join us as we chat with Semia about:

• Growing The Floral Reserve from 1,200 to 3,200 square feet
• How the pandemic accelerated shipping and shaped her wholesale business
• Partnering with New York Flower Group to launch a new e-commerce web shop
• Retaining employees long-term, including a 20+ year team member
• Breaking into destination weddings
• The logistics of traveling for weddings
• Growing planner relationships and what percentage of business now comes from planners
• Wholesale pricing, and educating florists on the true cost of flowers
• Confidence and mindset shifts gained through experience
• Current color palette and design trends in the industry
• Revisiting her original definition of success from our interview years ago

This episode of the Botanical Brouhaha Podcast is brought to you by:

Madrid Blooms

You can find show notes and more episodes of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast at botanicalbrouhaha.com, and you can find Amy on IG at either @botanicalbrouhaha or @bloomtrustco and Natalie at @hey.nataliegill or @native_poppy

This episode of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast was produced by Joel McGee. Original music by Landon McGee.

In this episode, we sat down with Bloom Trust Co and Circle member Shelley O'Neill, a former fourth-grade teacher turned florist who recently added a retail shop called Oyster Flower Co. to her existing wedding flower business in Annapolis, Maryland! Shelley walks us through what pulled her into CIRCLE (we talk more about that in the episode), what's kept her in Bloom Trust Co. for three years running, and together we break down exactly what's inside: the resource library, Office Hours, meetups, a private podcast called The Back Room, and the Flowering with Purpose grants.

If you're a florist (and it doesn't matter if you're a retail florist, wedding/event florist, or farmer florist), we built the BTCO community for you! We're in no hurry to expand it beyond the point where we know your name and your business model. We thrive on the connections and relationships built slowly with an attention to trust and accessible floral resources.

When you succeed, we all succeed! We firmly believe that. It's why we do what we do.

In this episode, we talk with Shelley about:

• Her path from event planning to full-time floristry to opening Oyster Flower Co.
• Leaving a career as a fourth-grade teacher for flowers
• Opening a retail flower shop and finding the support of the BTCO community along the way
• The real difference between CIRCLE (8-week deep dive, twice a year) and Bloom Trust Co. (year-round community)
• The scope of floral resources inside Bloom Trust Co
• How Office Hours work and why they're never recorded
• The Flowering with Purpose grant and past recipients

This episode of the Botanical Brouhaha Podcast is brought to you by:

BLOOM TRUST CO.

You can learn more about Bloom Trust Co here.

You can find show notes and more episodes of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast at botanicalbrouhaha.com, and you can find Amy on IG at either @botanicalbrouhaha or @bloomtrustco and Natalie at @hey.nataliegill or @native_poppy

This episode of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast was produced by Joel McGee. Original music by Landon McGee. 

In part two (Ep. 151) with Alex Vaughan of FLWR Shop in Nashville, Tennessee we dig into the real, tactical side of her decision to step away from wedding florals. Alex opens up about the politics and power dynamics of working with luxury wedding planners, the financial reality of pivoting to retail and corporate events, and how she and her husband Quinn split the business responsibilities between them. She also gets specific about staffing, delivery logistics, website headaches, and what it actually means to lead a team well.

Join us as we chat with Alex about:

• Why she stepped back from wedding florals to focus on retail
• Taking a public political stance and the fallout with wedding planners
• The power dynamics between florists and luxury wedding planners
• Advice for florists considering adding planning services to their business
• Rebuilding revenue through a new retail location and corporate events
• Team structure and staffing at a full-service flower shop
• Website and POS struggles (Squarespace, Hana, and exploring Shopify)
• Delivery logistics and staying a day ahead of orders
• How she and Quinn divide roles in the business
• Gift buying philosophy and building a cohesive brand
• Social media approach and staying personally involved with followers
• Making hard financial decisions: layoffs vs. investing in the shop
• Defining good leadership and what it means to be a good boss
• Her new brand and business consulting offering

This episode of the Botanical Brouhaha Podcast is brought to you by:

Madrid Flower School

You can find show notes and more episodes of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast at botanicalbrouhaha.com, and you can find Amy on IG at either @botanicalbrouhaha or @bloomtrustco and Natalie at @hey.nataliegill or @native_poppy

This episode of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast was produced by Joel McGee. Original music by Landon McGee.

How Alex Vaughan Built a Beloved Flower Shop

Alex Vaughan of FLWR Shop in Nashville built her shop with her partner Quinn from nothing — no family money, no connections, just a rented house, a second mortgage, and a vision for what a flower shop in Nashville could be. In Episode 150, she traces the wild, winding path that took her from a hippie commune in the forest to a flower shop in Boston to celebrity orchid maintenance in LA, and eventually to the city she now calls home. We talk about what it actually took to open a shop, survive a tornado in March 2020, and come out the other side with a business — and a life — she's genuinely proud of.

Join us as we chat with Alex about:

• Growing up in Miami with zero exposure to flowers
• Falling in love with flowers at a tiny flower shop
• Seeing a peony for the first time
• Working her way through flower shops in Boston, LA, and New York
• Meeting her partner Quinn through a shared courtyard
• Why they chose Nashville
• Moving to Nashville with $3,000 in a shoebox
• Opening their first shop: a Victorian four-square in East Nashville
• Renovating a shop while living upstairs
• Building a brand, not just a flower shop, in a city that didn't yet have one like it
• Losing visibility after losing their retail location to a tornado
• Why physical presence matters for a flower business more than most people think
• Letting go of weddings and why that was the right call
• Why running events and retail simultaneously is really running two different businesses

Connect with FLWR Shop:

• Website
• Instagram

This episode of the Botanical Brouhaha Podcast is brought to you by:

Madrid Flower School

You can find show notes and more episodes of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast at botanicalbrouhaha.com, and you can find Amy on IG at either @botanicalbrouhaha or @bloomtrustco and Natalie at @hey.nataliegill or @native_poppy

This episode of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast was produced by Joel McGee. Original music by Landon McGee.

We've waited so long for today's episode to drop (Ep. 149)! We're chatting with Sophie Felts, Founder and CEO of Sophie Felts Floral Co, along with her President and Director of Operations, Erica Gamble. We're thrilled to introduce them as the newest CIRCLE Weddings facilitators — and we think it'll be clear within the first few minutes of the interview that this was worth the wait.

Based in the Washington DC area, Sophie and Erica have spent a decade building a wedding floral business with a team of 15  and a hard-won philosophy around profitability, sustainable staffing, and doing work they're genuinely proud of.

In this conversation, they talk about how they built the business from the ground up, why they said yes to CIRCLE Weddings, and what they're hoping to give back to the floral community that poured into them when they were just getting started.

CIRCLE Weddings isn't a traditional mastermind or course, but rather a small group of ten people that will learn together in real time every Tuesday in July and August 2026. After years of hosting CIRCLE sessions, we believe in building a safe space where confidentiality within the group allows for vulnerability and open discussions about the realities of running a wedding/event flower business. We'd love for you to join us if that sounds like the space you've been yearning for.

Registration is open for the 10 available seats in 2026

CIRCLE Weddings 2026

July & August 2026:  Click here to grab a seat or learn more.

You can find show notes and more episodes of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast at botanicalbrouhaha.com, and you can find Amy on IG at either @botanicalbrouhaha or @bloomtrustco and Natalie at @hey.nataliegill or @native_poppy

This episode of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast was produced by Joel McGee. Original music by Landon McGee.

Decades in the Soil at Mountain Flower Farm

Walt Krukowski didn't set out to become a flower grower for life — he just wanted to grow something, make a little money, and have the winters free to ski in Vermont. Nearly three decades later, Mountain Flower Farm has become a thriving operation across 10 acres, known for its organic peonies, hydrangeas, and the idea that growers and floral designers succeed best when they're genuinely connected to each other. In this conversation (Ep. 148), Walt shares the honest, unhurried story of how the farm evolved, what he's learned about building something that lasts, and why the relationship between farmers and florists matters more now than ever.

Join us as we chat with Walt about:

• Why Mountain Flower Farm shifted away from annuals and now grows more hydrangea by volume than any other crop
• The ecological balance that comes with decades of organic farming — and why the first five years are the hardest
• What it's really like to farm with a family: the postcard moments, the missed dinners, and the real sacrifices
• How he keeps the farm manageable year-round
• Growing peony roots as a secondary business and the ripple effect of helping new farms get established
• Consulting services Walt offers for aspiring flower farmers, and the free Peony Blueprint resource on the Mountain Flower Farm website
• How to order from Mountain Flower Farm — and what floral designers can expect from the process
• Shipping logistics: why Walt only ships Mondays and Tuesdays, and the case for air shipping as an alternative to FedEx
• Why floral designers who build direct relationships with growers tend to see their businesses grow
• The most popular peony varieties right now for wedding florists, including a surprising answer about what outsells everything else
• Tips for conditioning peonies after arrival

This episode of the Botanical Brouhaha Podcast is brought to you by:

Madrid Flower School

You can find show notes and more episodes of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast at botanicalbrouhaha.com, and you can find Amy on IG at either @botanicalbrouhaha or @bloomtrustco and Natalie at @hey.nataliegill or @native_poppy

This episode of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast was produced by Joel McGee. Original music by Landon McGee.

Sarah Donjuan didn't set out to become a florist. In 2018, fresh out of business school and looking for a creative side hustle, she landed on a 1967 Volkswagen flower truck — and accidentally started a floral business with staying power in Atlanta. In this episode (Ep. 147), Sarah walks us through the full arc of JJ's Flower Truck and Shop: from a curtained kiosk at Ponce City Market to a 1,500-square-foot Dunwoody dream shop, and from a one-woman operation to a full, talented team. She's honest about the highs, the lows, and everything in between — including what it really takes to build a business that can run without you.

Join us as we chat with Sarah about:

• Starting a business with no industry experience and a "figure it out" mindset
• Growing from a pop-up model to a brick-and-mortar shop
• Listening to customers to decide what to offer next
• Building and sustaining a team — hiring, firing, and building culture
• Launching national flower shipping
• Competing with large floral brands in the online marketplace
• Balancing entrepreneurship with marriage and children
• The long-term vision: satellite shops in Chicago, LA, NYC, and Austin
•  

Connect with JJ's Flower Shop:

• • Website
  • Instagram

You can find show notes and more episodes of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast at botanicalbrouhaha.com, and you can find Amy on IG at either @botanicalbrouhaha or @bloomtrustco and Natalie at @hey.nataliegill or @native_poppy

This episode of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast was produced by Joel McGee. Original music by Landon McGee.

Building a Sweet Pea Seed Brand

In this episode (Ep. 146), we sit down with Colleen Raney, founder of Songbird Seed Co and Diadem Flower Co. If you love a great story, this one's for you. Colleen's path into the flower world is anything but conventional. From studying aerospace engineering and training as a professional actor, to performing Irish music internationally, to building a flower farm in Maine, to moving the farm to Washington—and ultimately launching a specialty sweet pea seed company—Colleen's story is full of pivots, curiosity, and entrepreneurial strategy. And don't even get us started on her sense of humor!

Colleen shares how a season of burnout and big life shifts led her to the garden—and how a simple fascination with sweet peas slowly grew into a thoughtfully built seed company. Our conversation wanders through topics like creativity, business strategy, and the realities of building something in the floral world, all anchored by the sense of wonder that keeps pulling us back to flowers.

Join us as we chat with Colleen about:

• Starting a flower farm in Maine and building a thriving local floral business
• Moving back to the West Coast and adapting to a different flower market
• Why sweet peas became the foundation of her seed business
• The process of researching and launching a niche seed company
• Branding, packaging, and storytelling as marketing tools
• Growing seed stock and preserving rare varieties
• Identifying your ideal customer and staying focused on a narrow market
• Managing comparison, visibility, and self-doubt as a creative entrepreneur
• Shifting away from "content creation" toward documenting real work on social media
• Building authentic community around a niche product

This episode of the Botanical Brouhaha Podcast is brought to you by:

Bloom Trust Co. Circle Retail 2026

Simple -- Soulful -- Connection.  Click here to learn more.

You can find show notes and more episodes of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast at botanicalbrouhaha.com, and you can find Amy on IG at either @botanicalbrouhaha or @bloomtrustco and Natalie at @hey.nataliegill or @native_poppy

This episode of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast was produced by Joel McGee. Original music by Landon McGee.