About Late Bloomer Flower Shoppe
✻ Discover the passion and artistry behind our blooming story: Meet our talented florist, Lauren Stiles ✻
“Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.”
— Luther Burbank
Where it all began…
I grew up with three previous generations of women who owned farms, plant nurseries, and had gardens big and small. I never appreciated the role flowers would play in my life until I was much older and a small sunflower garden is what got me through COVID quarantine and our daughter going through cancer treatment, simultaneously. I started remembering my roots, and in doing so, found my peaceful place amongst all the chaos.
Some time later I was working as a Venue Manager and we were hosting a Wine Tasting and Flower Arranging Class, but we had no teacher for the flower arranging portion. My boss at the time said ‘Why don’t you teach it?’ and I very enthusiastically said ‘I have no formal training, I can’t do this!’, he said ‘But I think you can.’ So I did, and I loved it. It was one of those moments where you smack yourself on the head like a V8 commercial and say ‘You dummy, of course you would love this, this is your happy place! Of course you can do this, the amazing women before you have given you all the tools to get started! And the rest you can learn on the way.’
So a couple of planning sessions involving multiple glasses of wine for liquid bravery later, Late Bloomer Flower Shoppe was born. I convinced my husband to go with me to buy a two horse trailer from a back pasture in Alabama, found myself a fabricator and we were off. I had my first build your own bouquet pop up market on Valentine’s Day 2022 at The Sapp House and sold out in three hours. I started going to farmer’s markets, then more pop up markets, then orders started coming in more frequently and I kept teaching classes sporadically while continuing to educate myself. I ran the whole operation out of a storage pod in my backyard, and our living room, and our dining room, and our bedroom, and of course my new flower trailer that was affectionately named Honeybee... but I was making it happen, with a great support system.
Where it is now…
For just over a year the storage pod and trailer were more than enough. But an opportunity arose for me to see a commercial property coming up for rent downtown and I wanted to take a look just to see what commercial rent was like downtown and start planning for a couple of years down the road. I fell in love with the space immediately but I knew it was too soon to make this move, I couldn’t do this yet. I looked at my husband while we stood in the middle of the shop that I could already picture in my head and I heard my old boss / current friend say ‘But I think you can’. I asked my husband ‘Would this be too crazy?’ and in his never ending support, he said ‘Nope’. So with shaking hands, I dove straight into creating a brick and mortar.
I wanted to manifest a different floral experience. My goal was to show people how creative they could be themselves while also offering full floral services. So I created a permanent Build Your Own Bouquet Bar, added a Dried Flower Bar, built in an Elopement Corner, planned unique and funky classes and partnered with other local businesses to sell their products in my gift shop while changing Honeybee to more of a special event or private event rental.
I’ve seen many entrepreneurs and business owners who refer to themselves as ‘self made’ and have always been impressed with that quality. However, I consider myself very proudly, community made. I am so blessed to have such a supportive family as well as a passionate community of business owners, artists, mentors, cheerleaders, sounding boards and visionaries in my corner. From the bottom of this late bloomer’s heart, thank you to all of you who have been and have yet to be part of my journey.