04/04/2025
This week's staff spotlight features our head floral designer Rebecca. There are also some floral shop questions answered at the bottom. If you have any questions for our staff or about the floral industry please leave us a comment or send us a message.
Q: What is your job title?
A: Hi! I am Rebecca and I am the head floral designer at A Ladybug Floral.
Q: What does a head floral designer do?
A: I create and post all of the new shop specials! That includes our monthly bouquets, all year round bouquets, and seasonal bouquets! I also do the majority of the social media, manage our website, order and clean flowers, and put together arrangements.
Q: How long have you been a florist?
A: I’ve been designing for 6 years now!
Q: How did you get into the floral industry?
A: It’s kind of a long story! My husband is military and we moved from our hometown in Nebraska to Layton Utah, Hill AFB. I wanted to go back to college for a Bachelor's degree (already have an associates in the culinary arts!). However, it wasn't scholarship/ grant application season and I didn’t want to pay for college out of pocket. The local floral shop up the street was hiring and I thought, why not? I've been hooked ever since!
Q: What is your favorite flower?
A: Bold to assume I have a favorite flower! I could never pick a consistent favorite! My favorite is whatever is currently the prettiest at our shop on that particular day. That's why the Designers Choice bouquet is on the top of our website, so I can give you all the prettiest blooms we have in stock!
Q: What is your favorite holiday to design for?
A: I would have to say winter/ Christmas is my favorite holiday to design for. The color palette is pretty standard, red, white and green. But we always have such an amazing variety of winter and Christmas containers! From cookie jars to ceramic containers that can be repurposed for cooking in the oven!! Definitely my favorite time of year to design, fall coming in close second!
Q: What is something you wish people knew about the floral industry?
A: Blue roses are not naturally occurring, nor black. Blue and black roses are not natural rose colors. There are many genetic hybrids for roses that dictate bloom size, color, length of petals, length of stems, what time of year they can grow, etc. However, there has not yet been a breakthrough on blue or black roses yet! They can be dyed or we can spray paint them with floral spray paint, but these methods of achieving the desired color kills the flowers after only 1-2 days, so we never recommend it.
Q: What do you like to do if you're not designing?
A: I think I might have too many hobbies haha! There are so many things I want to do! I consistently go to the rockwall climbing gym Gripstone, and occasionally climb outside. I enjoy playing board games, I've recently got back into making my own bread, bulk flour is so cheap! How could I not!? And my latest endeavor is water color painting, which I am horrible at! It can be hard to remember that skills take time to learn, lots of trial and error, lots of time and effort, and sometimes wanting to give up altogether. It's so important to remember that we are human, and we can’t be masters at a new craft right away, as much as we might fantasise otherwise!
Q: Any closing comments?
A: It means a lot to me that so many people still shop local! It’s so easy to walk into a big chain store and pick up a bouquet of flowers. It’s the people like you that give me the opportunity to do what I love the most and make a living out of it. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for supporting my dreams!
Floral shop questions:
Q: Where do you get your flowers from?
A: We get our flowers from a variety of wholesalers, our largest being in Denver. We also get some flowers shipped in directly from floral farms, our roses for example come directly from Ecuador. We order these flowers weeks or months in advance!
Q: Where do your flowers grow?
A: There aren't many flower growers in Colorado, but we do get almost all of our dahlias (when they are in season) from Colorado. We also get flowers from Florida, California, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, Canada, Ecuador, and Colombia.
Q Why are flowers like carnations so cheap and flowers like dahlias and peonies so expensive?
A: Carnations and mums are some of the cheapest flowers we can buy. This is due to multiple factors. Carnations and mums can grow all year round in the right climate, they don't need as much water as other flowers do, more stems grow on a single plant, and the individual plants can grow more flowers in a single month than dahlias and peonies do. If someone you know loves dahlias or peonies then I would highly recommend buying and planting one for them. Buying the plant itself is more labor intensive on your part, but most local nurseries provide them in multiple sizes and varieties and you can enjoy them every year!
