Flowers

Ideas related to high school, college, career, and entrepreneurship

Love flowers? Keep scrolling down for what you may not know exists about your special area of interest.

Tournament of Roses Parade

Today is New Year’s Day and was the Tournament of Roses Parade in California. If you don’t know what this is, it is a 5+ mile long parade that dates back to new years day in 1890. Companies and Organizations work year round to build floats to compete with the rule being they must be covered in natural materials, mainly flowers and seeds.

I grew up watching the parade when I was a kid on tv but when my kids were younger we made the trek to see it live in person. It was cool, but the year before I took them to the float parking lot the day after the parade and we much preferred it because we got to see the floats up close, but most intriguing for me was seeing all the hidden jobs not only related to the actual design and construction of the float but thinking about who grew all these flowers, got them there, and disposed of them after.

Even the parade itself has so many hidden jobs, who delivers the bleachers, ensures the fire codes are followed, blocks the streets, gets the permits in place, broadcasts, judges, etc. I could go on and on.

This year Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly Pomona won the Sweepstakes award which was a really big deal because it was all student designed and decorated and had over 21,000 flowers on it.

PHOTOS BY TOM ZASADZINSKI

Volunteering with Parade

Interested in helping tear down the floats or helping design and construct them in the future? Here are some of the places that take volunteers. Some organizations allow preteen and teens to also assist and offer community service credit.

• Artistic Entertainment Services (companies also hire them to build floats)

• Fiesta Productions (companies also hire them to build floats)

• Tournament of Roses Parade

• Explore Louisiana Float Team

• Kiwanis Float Team

• City of La Canada and Flintridge Float Team

• Cal Poly Universities Float Team

• Burbank Tournament of Roses Float Team

• South Pasadena Tournament of Roses Float Team

• Rotary Float Team

Sustainability + Flowers

Wondering what happens to all the flowers after the Rose parade? There are a lot of committees set up to ensure nothing gets wasted and everything is parted out to use as mulch, and compost or if still usable, donated to places that rearrange them and donate them to hospitals and nursing homes. Sound like something you may enjoy doing as a community service project in your town after large events with flowers? Look at models like these below for logistics and to see how you could create something similar or join a local program already doing this.

• Revased

• Rebloom

• Repeat Roses

On the commercial and retail end, there is currently a movement to encourage people to buy either local ethically grown flowers or flowers that are dried and arranged to help reduce waste related to fresh flowers and the process of growing them over and over again vs once for lasting enjoyment. Here are a few resources to Google to learn more about sustainable floriculture.

• Slow Flowers

• Idlewild Floral

• Floom

• The Good Trade

Research wise there are professors at the following universities doing research on sustainable floriculture so you may want to check out their work and see what classes they teach or articles they have written if this may be of interest to you and even see what degrees they may offer.

• University of Minnesota: Horticulture Department

• Floriculture Research Alliance (collaboration of many universities)

• North Carolina State University: Graduate Research by Amanda Solliday

• Coventry University and University of Surrey Sustainable Flowers Research Project

Another take on sustainability?

Lego Flowers.

Here is an example of a Lego florist in Paris. Seems like a side hustle in the making for Valentines Day……wonder what you can come up with to sell.

Art + Flowers

Even if you love flowers you don’t have to work with them directly. You can admire them from afar and draw them. For example, here is a duet I made today introducing Botanical Illustration.

Some other places that offer programming include:

• New York Botanical Garden: Certificate

• Phipps Conservatory Scientific Botany Illustration Certificate

• Monterey Bay Scientific Illustration Certificate

• University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Certificate in Botanical Art and Illustration

• Chicago Botanic Garden Botanical Arts Certificate

• Draw Botanical Online Classes

A good way to start becoming an expert in drawing flowers in learning about all the different types, their botany structures, and how perennials and annuals may differ and how flowers grown from bulbs, bushes, vines, trees, bulbs, in clusters, or singularly etc. present differently and maybe which you prefer and dislike when it comes to drawing. Joining something like master gardeners is a good way to learn more about flowers from experts in your community as well. Also learning your drawing medium is really important. Getting a digital drawing pad and using programs like krita or procreate can also be a good start to learning to draw digitally.

Scientific botanical artists can work for textbooks, scientific journals, museums, national parks, botanical gardens, seed companies, etc. Some ideas for entrepreneurship when it comes to drawing flowers are:

• Tattoo artist focusing on flowers

• Making handouts for teacher pay teacher focused on flowers

• Creating stock floral art

• Specializing in flowers for animated movies

• Specializing in flowers for video games

• Creating digital floral patterns for fabric.

• Entering floral artwork in county and state fairs for prize money

Some other art based ideas for entrepreneurships beyond illustration

• Stock Floral Photography

• Preserving Wedding/ Memorial Flowers in Silica or Resin

• Pressing Flowers for your art or other people’s art

• Using dried flowers in resin for jewelry

• Using edible flowers in decorative cakes

• Teaching paint and sip flower painting classes

Design + Flowers

A lot of people think it would be so fun to be a florist but don’t feel it is a viable career but that isn’t true. Many grocery stores, florists, farm stands, flower farms, and floral companies hire florists and you can study it on your own, especially if you want to work for yourself or at local community colleges.

Most often it is offered as certificates like at the following places

• University of Missouri Floral Artistry and Management

• Santa Rosa Junior College Floral Design Certificate

• Longwood Gardens Floral Design Certificate

• Johnson County Community College Floral Design Certificate

• McHenry County College Floral Design Certificate

• Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Floral Design Certificate

• Modesto Junior College Commercial Floristry Technician Certificate

• City of College of San Francisco Floristry Commercial Cut Flower and Greenhouse Production Certificate

• Go Farm Hawaii Agriforrestry Program

• Danville Area Community College Floral Design Certificate

Some places do offer degrees like

• Farmingdate State College AA Degree in Floriculture

• Ohio State University BS in Agriculture: Floriculture Track

You can also learn about specific types of flowers from various botanical societies all over the world, many offer free or affordable workshops online if you want to specialize in certain varieties.

Some more examples are below.

American Orchid Society

UF/ IFAS Webinars

Master Gardeners

Remember when building a floriculture resume you can include any knowledge you know it doesn’t have to be all classroom or work obtained. The most important thing to consider when thinking about becoming a florist is if you want to work for someone else or yourself. Starting a business of any kind is difficult but starting a business with perishable goods that need to be shipped in from all over is challenging so working in the industry and learning the ropes is highly suggested and may also help you decide if you prefer just the arranging and design or the actual details of the business. The small business association in your area can offer free business set up and coaching for free and visiting the society for American Florists and other professional associations can help you access industry resources for success.

Therapy + Flowers

A newer field of study is the impact of flowers and the color and visual display and how they impact our brain and reduce anxiety, researchers like those below are leading the forefront of it.

• Jeannette Haviland Jones from Rutgers is looking at emotional health, happiness and reduced anxiety related to flowers.

• Junfang Xie, Binyi Liu and Mohamed Eisadek from Tongji University and Suez Canal University studied flower and their color and their impact on psychological and psychological states during the COVID lockdown using EEG studies

• Nancy Etcoff PhD at Harvard studied the Home ecology of flowers and the impact of living with fresh flowers on decreased anxiety and depression.

• University of Florida looked at fMRI imaging during gardening and how it is linked to positive emotions, relaxation and mindfulness.

Reading their work, taking classes from them, and keeping up on these developments may result in new career opportunities or fields or ways to use their research in practice in things like horticulture therapy. You can learn more at the American Horticulture Therapy Association website or some places that are offering undergraduate Horticulture Therapy Certificates to get you started are

• Oregon State Online

• University of Florida Online

• Rutgers

• Temple University

• College of DuPage

Horticulture therapy is used a lot with the elderly, children, stroke victims, with the neurodivergent population, in wellness centers, to escalate anxiety and stress, with veterans, in prisons, etc.

Business + Flowers

Even if you currently or plan to work in things like finance, accounting, marketing, logistics, import or export, legal, graphic design, customer service, etc. you can choose to work at a flower oriented company. Here are some of the largest who hire a variety of jobs but also hire for growing and design.

• FTD

• ProFlowers

• Green Circle Growers

• Sun Valley Floral Farm

• Terra Nova Nurseries

• Costa Farms

• Bloom Nation

• Kruger Wholesale Florist

• Danziger

• Sun Valley Floral Farms

• Royal Imports

• Esmerelda Farms

• Fisch Floral Supply

• Colorblends Wholesale Flowerblubs

Going to large flower expos in person or looking at the sponsor and exhibitor websites can also be a great place to find jobs and career opportunities in the field of flowers. Here are a few large ones. Also remember the the places organizing these large events also have career opportunities.

• Floriexpo in Florida

• Philadelphia Flower Show put on by the Philadelphia Horticultural Society

• Florescense by Garden Club of America in Texas

• Northwest Flower and Garden Festival in Seattle

• Epcpt International Flower and Garden Festival

• Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

A few more entrepreneurial ideas related to flowers include:

• Contracting with local hospitals, restaurants, hotels, business centers, etc. to deliver fresh flowers several times a week or to water indoor plants and flowers.

• Setting up a DIY bouquet bar or floral crown bar at birthdays, bridal showers, craft fairs, or farmers markets

• Starting an affordable floral graveyard delivery service where you deliver fresh or artificial flowers monthly to all gravesites at once, clean the headstones, take a picture, and send a text to loved ones who lives out of town and can’t do this themselves.

• Start flower bulbs or seeds in a greenhouse and sell at local farmers markets

• Make potpourri out of discarded flowers

Seeds + Flowers

Have you ever seen a beautiful coloredscape pop up randomly at certain times of the year and it is barren the rest of the time? It may be a seed farm. Some people are able to take a small plot of land on their property and turn it into a nice side hustle growing flowers to harvest for seeds they package and sell. Your local library may have workshops and a seed library to get you started in learning the art and science of seed harvesting. Also check with local master gardening clubs or local flower specific clubs like orchid clubs or rose clubs. Here are some other places that are examples of programs to train people in seed growing and harvesting.

• Seed Library Network Online

• Hawai’i Seed Growers Network Seed Saving Training

• Seed School Online

• Oregon State University Growing Farms Online: Growing and Saving Seeds as a Farm Business Classes

• Organic Seed Alliance

• Penn State Extension Seed Saving Master Class

• Master Garden Foundation Seed Saving Classes

Final Thoughts

However you decide to work with flowers, the options are endless, I hope these ideas get you started as you explore your interest.

Like Plants in general?

Visit my past Substack post on Plants for more ideas.

To get future posts, be sure to subscribe and to be able to access all my content past, present, and future, consider subscribing.

Know someone who loves flowers or has other interests and can benefit from this substack? Please share this article with them. Sharing my posts with friends can also help you earn free months on substask.

What do you think about this new 2026 Substack Format? Love it or hate it? What topics do you want to see covered in January?