Today we’d like to introduce you to Felicia Sanchez.
Hi Felicia, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Apiana Blooms was dreamed up with one of my dearest friends on a fall trip to the desert. On that trip we realized we both shared a deep love of flowers and the dream to have land to grow them. While she had experience working and growing on a flower farm, I had none. By spring we had lasagna-gardened my entire front yard in Cottonwood Heights and started hundreds of seedlings in my small backyard garden shed. We grew such incredible varieties that year, many of whichI wasn’t familiar with. Dahlias, scabiosa, strawflowers, zinnias, cosmos, Queen Anne’s lace, sweet peas and the most delicious long tendrils of amaranth. Everything grew so beautifully that year, we landed a few weekly farmer’s markets, and tried to sell our flowers.
Those first markets were challenging and surprising. It felt as though people weren’t used to seeing flowers at the market and didn’t see the value in paying what we were asking. We’d go home with buckets of beautiful blooms and heavy hearts. We kept showing up and slowly things began to shift. What I saw was almost an awakening in people, a remembering of flowers. People were moved by them. We’d hear stories of how they hadn’t seen sweet peas since they were a child or how their grandmother used to grow dahlias in her garden. So many stories were shared. These flowers were different than the bouquets people were familiar with seeing in the supermarket. They felt wild and alive, vibrant.
After that first year, my friend and business partner transitioned out of the business to focus on school. I continued to sell flowers at the farmers market for the next few years. I also began offering winter wreaths and foraged wreaths throughout the winter months to balance out our season. I was slowly building up a clientele. I was getting more weddings and hosting wreath workshops. Something was shifting for me. The process of creating bouquets or making a foraged wreath became exciting and a creative outlet for me. I felt so inspired to create something that when I looked at, would arise the same emotion as my favorite wild spaces around me. A wildflower field in the High Unitas or the wild river bottoms where I grew up in Huntsville.
Once Covid hit, things really came to a halt for me. As the market season approached my grandfather’s health was in a very sensitive state. I made the choice to pull out of all markets and put things on hold so I could have the opportunity to be with him. The summer passed and during that time I had the opportunity to really pull back and be very honest with myself about my business. I realized I had lost heart around growing at some point and it had become unsustainable for myself and my family. I had allowed the garden to become a chore instead of something that nourished me. I also realized how much I loved working with the flowers. I loved creating. I had been holding so tight to this identity of being a grower. I needed to let that go so I could move forward. Once I gave myself permission to do that I was able to get really clear on what I wanted to express and offer through Apiana Blooms. What are the things that bring me creative joy and pleasure in this process?
All of this brings us to today. I’ve just rebranded my business and built up a new website as a full-time Floral Designer. I am offering a beautiful range of wild bouquets, foraged wreaths, and beeswax candles. Through all of these offerings, I have the opportunity to create things that invite people to be in awe of something beautiful. Something wild and familiar. Something that just may bring a feeling of delight t our tender hearts and beings.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
In the beginning, my friend and I both came into this with very full lives. We were both working, she was in the middle of her master’s program and I was a new mother. We had very little money to get things started. I came into this knowing very little about growing flowers or what it took to run a business. So much of this, over the years, has been about building resilience and trust. This has looked like so many things to me. Watching hundreds of seedlings, I’ve started from seed and tended to for months be taken out in minutes by a hail storm, and trusting that all is well. Going to market after market without selling a single stem and having the resilience to show up one more time and trust that someone will start buying my flowers. Trusting in myself to ask for support when I need it. Trusting that I am as capable as anyone else to start and grow this business. Trusting that my dreams are just as real as anyone else’s and deserve space to be expressed. Amazingly it worked! The seedlings came back, I started selling out by 11am at the markets, and I found the support I needed to move forward in a more sustainable way. I got really clear about what I wanted and things have continued to grow and evolve.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I have a deep love and connection to the natural world around me. This love is expressed in all I try to offer through Apiana Blooms. My designs are whimsical and wild, reflecting back to me my favorite wild spaces. The Utah desert, the river bottoms where I grew up in Huntsville, a wildflower field in the Uintas all of these places inspire what I create. An important part of expressing this through my work is sourcing local whenever possible. I do this in my design work by working with local flower growers and sustainably foraging on my family’s 30 acres for native grasses and foliage. Local flowers are providing me with the freshest flowers for my clients. There is a different vibrancy and life that comes through in them and elevates any arrangement.
We’re coming into wreath season, and creating wild, foraged wreaths is one of my favorite offerings. I spend days traveling up to Huntsville collecting beautiful ingredients from my family’s property for the season. When using native plants, I’m able to create an expression of the landscape that surrounds us and bring it close. The wreaths offer a connection to these wild spaces every time they greet you at your door. I provide workshops throughout the season for people who are interested in making their own.
Beeswax candles have been a lovely new addition to my current offerings. There is a simplicity and beauty to beeswax candles when they’re burning. They hold so many incredible properties and it’s been an honor learning more about the bees and this incredible gift they produce.
Through all of my offerings, keeping things as local and sustainable as possible is a very important practice for me. One that invites me to be constantly learning and evolving.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I haven’t really had a mentor throughout this experience. What I have had was and has been an amazing community around me. My partner and daughter who have shown up for me in so many ways. Such as getting up at 5 am and packing up the truck with flowers to join me at markets. Dear friends who would show up last minute to help me put flowers together for a wedding. Through their support, I’ve been able to continue growing and moving at things through a kind of trial and error. The Women’s Business Center has been an amazing resource for me. They offer many free courses for new business owners. They provide a community of support and so much experience. I would say just keep showing up. Salt lake has so many artist markets and farmer’s markets throughout the year. Sign up and talk to other vendors. Get to know the community.
Contact Info:
- Website: Apianablooms.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apianablooms/
