The story of FLO can be described in one word: romantic.  Carol and Antonio’s inspiration for starting FLO came from the flower shops in Paris that they visited on their honeymoon. These flower shops opened up a new world of floral design - making way for much more than just traditional rose bouquets.  On this same trip, the two collected rocks from the beach, which inspired Antonio to learn how to make terrariums to house them.  “I told her: what about I learn how to make these terrariums so I can use the rocks, it’s a beautiful memory…” They gave those terrariums away as gift ..read more

Willie Rodriguez has learned a lot through working with plants. He basically grew up with them, working on his parent’s farm and then getting into landscaping at the young age of fifteen.  After his father’s business suffered when the economy crashed, Willie took what he learned and started his own nursery. “Plants have taught me discipline like you wouldn't believe...it takes discipline to be in this industry.” When Willie was trying to improve his health, he had to take those philosophies of hard work that he’d been used to applying to plants and apply them to himself.  “I had bec ..read more

While Rhonda Fleming Hayes has always been an avid gardener and writer, it wasn’t until her son left for college that she combined her interests. As with many people, her love for gardening started as a child growing up helping in her grandmother’s garden. Even through the periods of her life where she had less space, she always managed to have something growing. “It's a constant in my life, and it's given me joy, and it's given me solace.” In her garden, Rhonda describes herself as very loose - she likes to see what the plants will do if she doesn’t try to carefully curate how everything tur ..read more

“It's almost grounding to know when life is so crazy around you, you know that the plants are a constant.” For a lot of his life, Antoine de Vallois never saw plants as his career path. He’d grown up around them and some of his earliest memories are of playing in piles of soil, but for a long time he saw it as nothing more than the family business.  Eventually after trying international business, Antoine found his way back to the nursery. With the guidance of his father and others who taught him the business, working with plants finally clicked.  “At that moment, I started for the f ..read more

From her childhood seeing her mother and grandmother gardening, Lyvia has always been surrounded by plants.  It was her mother’s avocado tree that first instilled the importance of plants in connecting people, as her family would give the extra fruit away to neighbors.  “I started to see how the plants create those relationships between people not only in a practical way, but also the relationships built between people and plants.” One of the things Lyvia loves about her process is seeing plants in all sorts of stages of life.  “It shows another anatomy, other forms which to me ..read more

Martin Motes has always loved orchids - from his childhood in Florida, using his pocket money to collect orchids to cultivating and breeding new species for orchid lovers everywhere.  His love of orchids has had him travel to other countries to study South American species of orchids throughout his life. At only age sixteen, he traveled up the Amazon river collecting orchids. “That was an absolute formative experience that welded me to orchids and to the tropical plants and to the tropics.” Orchids and humans share something special in common: they’re both bilaterally symmetrical. Martin ..read more

Do you talk to your plants?  The answer for quite a few of you will probably be, “yes.” But Paloma Teppa’s connection with plants goes even deeper than that. Since she was seven years old, Paloma has felt that she could communicate with plants, feel what they feel.  “I thought it was normal, but then as I got older I realized not everyone could do it, but I actually think it’s a natural thing.”  Paloma loves her biophilic design work. She feels the beneficial effects of surrounding yourself with plants every day and gets to share that with others.  “I know that in some way ..read more

From beats to botany, Casey Zap has done it all. When he was deep into the music scene in New York, he never would have expected that his life would shift to him getting into landscape design.  Really, it was a total accident that triggered his interest in plants. The simple act of throwing out a rotten papaya in his yard and realizing that it started growing into a tree sparked a fascination in him.  “It fruited, and I gave them to my neighbors and that was a really good experience for me. I really enjoyed, like sharing this thing that I had grown.” When he first started the Center ..read more

Below is the trailer for our latest Episode, “Follow the Flower”. You can watch the full film by signing up through our newsletter HERE. It’s easy, it’s free, and you can see some exclusive behind the scenes photos and hear what PlantPop is up to! When you see people buying flowers, do you ever wonder what they’re for? Are they bringing them to their partner for an anniversary? Will they use them as models for a still life painting? Do they just think they would look nice on their windowsill? Every flower makes a special journey. Come with us and follow this one. Special thanks to Paul and Jen ..read more

Even though Jose grew up surrounded by plants when he lived in Cuba, he never would have expected that he’d become an orchid grower. Many thought that he would pursue writing, as he won national prizes for literature. But everything changed on one fateful day in Fort Lauderdale.  “Generally, when you go to an orchid show, when you attend a show, you get a little raffle ticket and every hour on the hour they call a winner. Well, viola, who won? I did.” Winning this orchid would launch Jose into curiosity about the species, which then tumbled to a full grown obsession with the plant.  ..read more