This past week our team has been carefully reading all of the essays submitted as part of our Floret Scholarship application process. It was such an honor to hear from so many wonderful people who are ready to follow their dreams and fill their lives, and the lives of others, with flowers. We received applications from 81 different countries around the world!
Initially, we had planned on offering 20 full scholarships, however, after some very generous donors came forward, we were able to increase the number of scholarships to 23—our most ever!
A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to apply. I am so grateful that you shared your hopes and dreams with the team and me.
This year as we were reviewing applications two prominent themes emerged.
First, the number of people who started their gardening journey during the pandemic is awe-inspiring. So many new gardeners found the act of growing flowers and getting their hands in the dirt gave them comfort, peace, and a sense of hopefulness during such a challenging time.
Second, many of the essays expressed a deep desire to not only grow and share flowers but also to share their newfound gardening knowledge with others, especially with children and young adults.
Here are a few of my very favorite quotes that really sum up the essence of this year’s scholarship applications:
“I believe flowers are the most valued gift a person can give. They are what we go to to say I love you, to say I am sorry, to say sorry for your loss, and I am thinking of you. Flowers are feelings in a wrap. They say the things we often cannot. And for me and mine, the peace I get from placing bulbs and seeds in the ground and feeling the dirt, and then being able to gift that peace to the community, so they can say the things they may be struggling with, is a fate I am attempting to capture. I grow for healing. For myself and for others.”
“I wanted to grow enough flowers to create abundance. And then share that abundance with people who are going through a tough time. Flowers can be such a beautiful gift. I feel deeply that if you have the ability and opportunity to create such abundance then you should share it with those who don’t have the chance or the means to have such beauty in their life. Gratitude and helping others is such a rewarding circle.”
“Giving back to the community and especially children through knowledge, mentorship, and experience is where I personally want to take my flower journey. The ability to teach others no matter what their situation and background maybe is the greatest aspiration.”
“Gardening for me has been therapy, grounding me when the world around me was too much.”
Reading the winners’ excited and grateful responses has been the highlight of our week and I am so excited to introduce you to them.
Please join me in congratulating the 2023 recipients by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post.
Reid Andrew, No Flowers Here, Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States
At 14 years old, Reid watched Growing Floret and “for the first time in years … felt a joy that was missing in life.” They asked their parents if they could dig up their backyard and turn it into a flower garden and to their surprise, they said yes! They worked hard to save up the money they needed for supplies and now have 400 sq ft filled with flowers. Reid wants to be able to produce enough flowers to give to the people they love, and also “people who just need something beautiful in their day.”
Sallyann Burtenshaw, Little Paddocks Tea House and Small Stores, Mongo, NSW, Australia
Sallyann and her son dreamed of opening a tea house and garden, Little Paddocks Tea House and Small Stories, but he passed away from cancer before they were able to make their dream a reality. Sallyann has continued on with Little Paddocks, but bushfires and floods have set back her progress. She and her son were “big believers in paying it forward” and she plans to expand the garden at Little Paddocks so that she can support youth in her local Indigenous community.
Stephanie Davie, Hope Blooms, Delta, British Columbia, Canada
Stephanie and her family have a small dairy farm in British Columbia. Her son was born with serious health issues and over time she lost herself as she devoted herself to caring for him. One day she brought a bouquet to her son’s hospice nurses and a passion for flowers was ignited. She’s since gone on to grow and sell flowers to raise money for others suffering from loss, including $31,000 for her son’s hospice center.
Rebecca Drennen, Norwalk, Ohio, United States
In 2021, Rebecca planted her first cutting garden and shortly thereafter tragically lost her 10-year-old son, Micaiah, in a fire that destroyed her home. After having lost so much, Rebecca was given a gift of blooms that summer—her “dahlias, zinnias, sweet peas, snapdragons, and cosmos were growing with ferocity.” She “would like to create a small farm where families could come to cut their own blooms. Invite them to also enjoy the buzzing of the bees and the earth beneath their feet, just like Micaiah did.”
Rae Ehrlund, Star Seed Garden, Troutville, Virginia, United States
Rae is a Cherokee Nation tribal member and mother of three who was injured in a car accident just after deciding to begin flower farming. She “pushed through the pain, dizziness, and multiple physical therapy appointments each week and achieved more than I could have dreamed.” She has been involved in the local organic food and flower movement and has been “asked by the local library to host classes … on growing cut flowers and arranging, which are free to the community.”
Jordan Goldsmith, Moonrose Farm, Rehoboth, Massachusetts, United States
Moonrose Farm is a diversified farm offering vegetables for a CSA, a farm stand, and a flower program. Jordan has been able to grow the flower program to account for over 50% of their income. Community is extremely important to Jordan and the work-share program at Moonrose is “a hands-on learning experience where we share our farming knowledge while providing a safe, affirming community for all, especially LGBTQ+ and BIPOC. As a queer lesbian myself, I had a hard time finding mentors that would not treat me differently based on my gender & queerness when I wanted to learn about things like building and tractors, so providing this space for others is important to me.“
Vanessa Hall, Feather and Tendril Farmstead, Lakefield, Ontario, Canada
Ness just finished her fifth season growing using no-till methods on her 3,000-sq-ft plot. She has a genetic condition called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and has to manage her farm tasks around pain flares and other symptoms. She wants to “create a thriving business for myself that can support my family, and allow for my bodily autonomy” and believes that the Floret Online Workshop “will really assist me in honing in on the specific skills and key activities that are needed to grow a consistent volume of flowers, and market them appropriately to move them from field to tables.”
Mara Healy, Burfoot Flowers, Olympia, Washington, United States
Mara began growing flowers after losing her mom, who always had a garden bursting with color. “In the untethered space of loss, growing flowers connected me—to her, to the earth, and to my purpose.” She is driven by “principles of stewardship, equal access to natural beauty, and community,” which have helped shape her business Burfoot Flowers. She “started building an amazing CSA membership of flower friends who share my beliefs” and plans to “continue to share with my community, both through CSA and pay-what-you-can opportunities for anyone with a financial barrier to accessing the powerful connection to the natural beauty that fresh flowers provide.”
Aadila Kadwa, Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Aadila grows flowers in her garden while also working part-time in her family business and raising her three sons. She has been selling edible flowers for the past 2 years, which earns her “a tiny income … [of] buckets in happiness.” She is serious about expanding into cut flowers and has begun experimenting with different varieties to see how they grow in her climate. By participating in the Floret Online Workshop, she is hoping to “learn how to run a small-scale farm efficiently and sustainably, which can then further enable me to branch out into a large-scale farm.”
Crispin Korschen, The Joyful Flowery, Paihia, the Bay of Islands, Northland, New Zealand
Crispin has gardened her entire life and dreamt of establishing a large cutting garden, but wasn’t able to afford the land. Last year, however, a dear friend gifted her a plot to use however she wished. Crispin has faced some health challenges and has found that “[b]eing on the land, growing, and focusing on daily changes is such a beautiful way to maintain” the joy of her everyday life. “It is such a fulfilling way to live, and when you are faced with the choice, as we all are, of how you want to live your life, I have found that this is what I want to do. To cultivate abundance that I can gift to others.”
Karina Królak, Good Farm, Wilków nad Wisłą, Masovian District, Poland
Karina has a small urban garden in Warsaw where she shares crops with friends in need. She calls it “the secret task of my garden. They can’t know that I grow food specially for them.” Growing flowers has helped her “during the pandemic and since the outbreak of war in Ukraine (our neighboring country) [when] fear here was indescribable.” Karina dreams of having a little flower farm where she can “host classes with children and people who want a break from the city.”
Connie Johnson, Freedom Acres SD, Brandt, South Dakota, United States
Connie is a military combat veteran who served in Iraq and began growing flowers as a form of therapy for herself. She considers growing flowers a blessing “because I love it so much and I want to share the gift of flowers with others.” “This online workshop will be invaluable to me because it will give me guidance on how to achieve my dreams of healing others thru flowers.” She wants to “be the best flower farmer I can be, not just for me but for those that are having difficulty finding the words in times of distress.”
Maria Laughlin, Special Growers, Maryville, Tennessee, United States
Special Growers is a nonprofit herb and flower farm whose staff is primarily made up of disabled young adults. “A safe and inclusive work environment is provided where our staff can learn job skills and gain confidence for future careers.” Special Growers also offers a school work-study program for local special education students that offers them employment after graduation. Maria plans to use the Floret Online Workshop to further her legacy at Special Growers. “As one of two individuals in our organization with the intellectual knowledge of flower growing, I feel a great responsibility to carry on this legacy long after I retire.”
KayTrenia Lee, Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States
KayTrenia is a single mother of two and has been teaching for the past 29 years. She loves “learning and telling others about flowers, and teaching children at my school how to grow flowers in our gardening club.” In 2020, a tornado destroyed her school and the gardens that she and her students had established. They “are currently rebuilding our entire school … One of the main features of the new school will be a rooftop garden and raised beds to be used for learning purposes as well as campus beautification” and KayTrenia gets “to be a part of the whole process!”
Kara Macy, Bountifully, Mission, Kansas, United States
Kara is the grower-potter behind Bountifully, LLC. As she shares, “According to Harvesters, a local food pantry, one in 10 people in my community don’t know where their next meal will come from, which leaves families struggling to put food on the table, let alone flowers in pretty vases. This reality is heartbreaking and I’ve longed to do more. Since day one, Bountifully has proudly given back 10% of proceeds to local food banks and community garden programs.” Kara hopes that the Floret Online Workshop will allow her to continue to reinvest in her community by “providing employment opportunities, empowering hurting families, creating joy through beauty, and inspiring others to use their gifts bountifully.”
Caroline Michniak, Jaro Farm, Detroit, Michigan, United States
Caroline and her partner Jared, who uses a wheelchair, run an urban flower farm from their home in Detroit, Michigan. They are “dedicated to creating accessible growing spaces where accessibility includes people with disabilities and different levels of mobility. Our space uses hacks like elevated seedling tables, raised beds, and even an electric assist wheelbarrow so that my partner can be as involved in the growing process as possible.” They “used the Floret books as our flower-growing bibles and [are] so ecstatic to be a part of the” Floret Online Workshop.
Sergii Molchanov, Florest Farm, Bohdanivka, Kyiv Region, Ukraine
Sergii and his partner began growing flowers 4 years ago. In their most recent season, they started planting their ranunculus on February 24, the same day that Russia attacked Ukraine. At first, he wondered what he was doing planting flowers in the midst of an invasion, but he soon began receiving messages on social media thanking him for his work and letting him know that his flowers helped people feel that life would still go on. For Sergii, “it was a huge impulse to … not give up. And we did not.” He believes that the Floret Online Workshop “will change my life forever and help to make my farm more blooming for every season.”
Amy Morrison, The Farmer’s Daughter, Mount Vernon, Washington, United States
Amy teaches horticulture and floral design in Mount Vernon, Washington, and has her own business, The Farmer’s Daughter. She has run a successful bouquet subscription program and had her first seed and tuber sale this year. The “small successes from trying things” in her own garden have “spilled into my classroom and invigorated my students.” Amy shares, “our younger generation is excited and eager to learn about plants and how to make a living working in this industry. I’ve already learned so much from Floret through the books, blogs, and online resources, but this workshop [will] make me a better teacher by expanding my knowledge so much deeper.”
Anatasia Murdoch, Cudgen Flower Farm, Duranbah, NSW, Australia
Anatasia is an active member of the Queensland Dahlia Society and is locally known as the “dahlia lady.” She often hosts local events for new flower farmers. She is “willing to teach and spread the knowledge within [her] local community” and feels “that the Floret course will give me extra invaluable information to be able to better help not only myself but other local start-up businesses.” Dahlias are currently her main crop and she hopes to be able to add “other revenues of income and learn to start my own seeds and master cuttings to be able to expand without any more major investments into the farm.”
Svetlana Rodina, California, United States
Svetlana spent every summer farming with her grandmother in Russia. She dreamt of having a small plant workshop but was forced to leave Russia. The transition has been challenging—“This difficult road lacks beauty and wonder.” She plans to sell flowers to help provide for her family and will also donate bouquets to “refugees, like us. I will pay special attention to mothers because I know how hard and difficult it is.”
Ethan Roe, Legacy Farms, Leesburg, Virginia, United States
Ethan works at Legacy Farms, a nonprofit organization that provides on-the-job mentorship and coaching for neurodiverse individuals after high school and beyond. They grow flowers that they currently sell through a CSA program. They hope to be able to expand “to become self-sustaining and to have the ability to offer full-time positions, more paid apprenticeships, and educational training. We plan to acquire more land to grow more volume, thereby allowing us to sell more shares, wholesale flowers, and individual bouquets.” Ethan believes that the Floret Online Workshop will be a huge help to him in addressing the new challenges that Legacy Farms faces as they expand.
Dejh Salyers, Tumwater, Washington, United States
Dejh shares, “[m]y story is the story of so many children … Poverty, abuse, and internalized inferiority led me to seek out ‘safety’ in a life and career where I was completely disconnected from myself. And then, flowers called to me.” Working in her garden has helped her to find a path back to herself and her “mission is to help urban folks reconnect with the land—and in doing so with themselves—by mimicking nature’s abundant generosity.” She has a small flower stand where she shares free flowers with her neighbors that has “become a powerful reconnection to the interdependence that is critical to our mental health.”
Yulia Zavalniuk, Villa Verde Farm, Kyiv, Ukraine
In February, Yulia left her home in Ukraine to attend a flower and garden exhibition in Italy only to wake up one morning and learn that her home had been attacked by Russia. She was determined to get back to her farm to take care of the seeds she’d just planted, but her greenhouses were cut off from electricity and water and the seedlings died. When she returned home in April she found a “burned down building with equipment and tools and flower beds full of weeds.” Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she realized “that I have a lot of work to do this season and sooo much motivation, that you would not believe!”
Please join me in congratulating the 2023 Floret Scholarship Winners by leaving a comment below. The team and I are thrilled to have this amazing group join us for our upcoming workshop.
If you’d like to learn more about the Floret Online Workshop be sure to visit our workshop page.
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Mellisa Kelliher on
Congratulations to you all for being so giving. Flowers are love and love matters most ❤️ -Mellisa in Massachusetts