I Owe it to The Lilacs.

There is one vivid memory I have of flowers from my adolescence. As a young girl, my Mother planted a lilac bush outside our living room window. Every year as the blossoms erupted she would open the windows and the smell would fill our home for a few short weeks.

I remember how desperately I wished they would last; that each day would be filled with their sweetness. I wanted to curl up in a blossom like the bumblebees and embrace what Mother Nature had gifted us for such a brief time. Eventually the seasons would shift. The peonies would bloom, the sunflowers would reach gravity-defying heights and as the snow fell each winter, all would go quiet in anticipation of those dainty purple buds at the corner window.

Part of the beauty of the Earth’s bounty is its fleeting seasonality. The scents, the blooms and the colors all flow with the year and these moments are what make them so desirable. Cut flowers, tubers and clumps of roots are shared from gardens and passed from hand to table and back again to the Earth. We grow and we give.

Throughout life there are few tangible gifts we receive that are perishable; that are tied simply to the short moment in which they are given.

This is what makes flowers so uniquely beautiful to me. Florals are always bound to the moments in which people Gather together. Whether it is in sorrow, in love or otherwise it is almost always shared with others.

This is why I accepted a path in flowers. I started Gather Flower Studio last in 2019 after the universe shoved me head-first into what I was meant to do. After 11 years of working in communications, my position was eliminated and I was left to sink or swim. I had been working part-time with blooms and a heartfelt chat with loved ones solidified my calling, there was no question. I had to leap.

After making the decision I embraced it with all my might and immediately fell deep into the rabbit hole of online education. If it was free, it was for me - and to this day I eat, drink and sleep videos and educational articles.

I pin floral varieties and colors and the name of every rose known to man. I work hard to understand the why and how of design principles and I naively ask questions in a thirst to be better every single day. I challenge myself, question my technique and learn the rules in an effort to break them. To eliminate barriers around floristry and the ways in which it is seen, used and thought of as both a business and an art form.

I send every piece out the door proud. The love, the creative eye and the will are ever present. I truly believe it was all meant to fall this way. None of this path I now live was expected and I deeply believe my love and will to create in this industry will help it grow in unprecedented ways.

I am wholeheartedly joyful for the moments I can create or grow with flowers. I believe in their love. I believe in what they bring to the world. I believe a single bloom can evoke the same warmth as a beautifully crafted arrangement. And I believe I am meant to share more of it with the world. My heart is all in. I feel for each season and those I joyfully get to share it with. If my service to the world is displaying gifts from Mother Nature, I owe to the lilacs to do so well.