Part 2: How a Flower Subscription Service Saved My Business

After sharing why a flower subscription service saved my business, so many of you asked how to build something similar for your own work. Whether you’re a florist, baker, or creative entrepreneur, the process follows the same rhythm: start small, stay consistent, and keep refining.

In this post, I’m pulling back the curtain on exactly how I built my subscription model—from landing my first client to creating a system that now brings in steady, predictable income year after year.

Read the rest of this article here: https://madefloral.substack.com/p/part-2-how-a-flower-subscription

A Florist's Field Notes #2: Roses

I imagine a woman, far, far away, sitting in a room and looking out the window. In the distance, there are rows and rows of roses in a field — in every color. She gazes out, letting the colors carry her into a soft, colorful daydream, when suddenly there’s a knock at the door. Someone steps in and hands her a bucket of roses, all in one color, and says, “Do your thing.” She studies them for a moment, then suddenly answers, “Happy Bride.”

A small team of people who have been patiently waiting for her decision suddenly burst into a round of applause — relieved and grateful for her naming magic, for her quiet power to turn a color, a feeling, into a name.

Read the rest of the article here: https://madefloral.substack.com/p/a-florists-field-notes-2-roses

A Florist's Field Notes #1

From the Market

Wednesday morning at the flower market:
I picked up flowers for Juniper and Adam’s wedding, their rehearsal dinner, and this week’s flower subscriptions. We’ll go back tomorrow for the rest of the weekend orders, and to pick up the dahlias that were delayed on today’s truck.

It was a rainy, gray morning — the kind that slows everything down a little. Inside, the fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, bright and almost too sharp against the soft weather outside. The rows of buckets were filled with color: pincushion protea, blush dahlias, persimmon branches, and pomegranates the color of dried roses. Each bloom seemed to glow in the artificial light.

Read the rest of this article here: https://madefloral.substack.com/p/a-florists-field-notes-1

On Color, On 40

Color is central to my work with flowers, guiding both my interactions with customers and my orders with vendors. Sometimes I wish I could mix colors together to engineer the perfect shade I’m looking for, but there’s something even more special when you stumble upon it unexpectedly.

I went on a painting retreat in early September to celebrate my 40th birthday—something inward, quiet, and creative, just for me. It felt like a gift of time, color, and calm. The retreat was led by my painting teacher from the Rowayton Arts Center. Taking myself out of one medium and into another is always refreshing, especially during my busy season.

Read the rest of this post at https://madefloral.substack.com/p/on-color-on-40

Part 1: Why a Flower Subscription Service Saved My Business

Before anything else, I want to say thank you.

If you’re reading this, you’ve supported my flower subscription—or cheered me on in some other way—and that support has truly helped this small business grow. Every bouquet on a doorstep, every kind word, every renewal matters more than I can say.

Looking back, I can see how much the past few years shaped not only my business but my approach to life. Covid was a turning point in so many ways. It taught us all lessons—some personal, some professional—but for me, the pandemic reshaped how I run my business and how I think about stability and growth.

Read the full article here: https://madefloral.substack.com/p/how-a-flower-subscription-service

Lessons from Two Virgos: My Business and Me

Today, I’m reflecting on 11 years in business. I opened my business on August 28 and my birthday is September 12—both in Virgo season. We’re creative, detail-oriented, and always striving for perfection (even if we know perfection is just an illusion). Over the years, my business has grown steadily, just like I’ve grown as a person—learning resilience, patience, and how to trust myself more deeply.

I was 28 when I started this business, full of big dreams and little of a plan. Eleven years later, I’ve experienced early mornings, late nights, deadlines, doubts, small wins that felt enormous, and huge wins I almost didn’t see coming. Eleven years of falling in love with the work again and again—even when it was challenging.

Read the full article here: https://madefloral.substack.com/p/lessons-from-two-virgos-my-business

In Step with the Rhythm: Enjoying Summer & the Busy Season

August in Michigan brings cooler mornings and softer evenings—early signs of change, even if I’m not quite ready. Still, I find comfort in the afternoon sun filtering through oak leaves, the loud song of cicadas filling the air. Everything feels alive, on the brink of something new.

Work hums around me even though I’m on a trip—orders, emails, weddings, the team, logistics. But I’m here, noticing the colors of August.

Read the full article here: https://madefloral.substack.com/p/in-step-with-the-rhythm

Intuitive Floral Design: Composing a Floral Arrangement while Following Your Gut

When I create an arrangement, I think about all of the elements that make it whole, that make it feel complete. I consider the basic design principles—color, balance, movement, unity, emphasis—when making each arrangement.

I add a flower, take a step back, squint my eyes and lower my body so that I’m at eye level with the flowers. I notice that something is off, not quite right, so then I move towards the flowers and take the stem out of the vase and move it a tiny bit to the left. The process begins again, taking a step back, squinting my eyes, moving that same flower a smidge to the left again.

Read the full article here: https://madefloral.substack.com/p/intuitive-floral-design

Petrichor: Hot-Glued Golf Balls & Letting Nature Do its Thing

It’s our third day of setup at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and a weather alarm sounds throughout the golf course. My client sends me a text mandating that everyone evacuate the course and wait out the storm in the clubhouse. My team and I will often work through the rain wearing rain jackets and boots, but when thunder and lightning hit, it’s unsafe to stay outside.

As we wait out the storm inside, I think about how this will impact the project I have planned for the afternoon. I watch the heavy rain hit the window and it reminds me that some things are just out of our control; no matter how meticulous the plan is, we often have to pause and let nature do its thing.

Read the rest of this post at https://madefloral.substack.com/p/petrichor

Happy Clients: It All Starts with Managing Expectations

Client challenges are a major part of being a business owner. It’s not a matter of “if” but when. I’ve heard from other business owners, “my client won’t pay me!” or “my client said they wanted to go blonde but then changed their mind when they saw the finished product!” As we gain experience running our businesses, we all encounter some version of these issues at one time or another, and they can lead to tension with our clients or, worse, financial loss. It’s not because clients are bad or wrong or because we’re not competent entrepreneurs. It’s because this stuff happens, and we can learn a lot from it!

The challenges I’ve encountered are the reason I get everything in writing. I keep copious notes of meetings, I organize my files and invoices meticulously, and I’ve built a solid contract that accounts for a number of challenges I can expect now and then as a floral business owner.

Read the rest of this post at https://madefloral.substack.com/p/happy-clients

Always Learning: How Classes Can Show the Way and Change Your Life

My woodworking teacher’s name was L. Woods. She was no joke, but the name still makes me smile—first because of Legally Blonde (this woman was neither perky nor pink) and second because Leah Woods was into, well, wood. But here I am, Martha DeFlorio the florist.

Leah was petite, with red pixie-cut hair. She was among the strictest of all my college instructors: she was a tough grader and her attendance rules were savage—three minutes late to her class meant an unexcused absence. In the first weeks of class, I was extremely anxious not only about my teacher’s expectations but also about working with powerful machinery and sharp tools. Band saws, joiners, planers, and chop saws filled me with fear and I had visions of making a big mistake like, you know, losing a finger. Leah’s assistant was, in fact, missing part of his finger.

But something had called me to enroll in this class, and as the semester progressed I slowly became accustomed to the woodshop and the machinery, and an interesting thing started to happen.

Read the rest of this post at https://madefloral.substack.com/p/always-learning

My "Cheeseburger Method" for Color: I never complete an arrangement without it!

I’ve worked with a lot of florists over the years and they often ask me how I think about and use color in my flower arrangements. There’s one color principle I love to start with and it always works!

I never let an arrangement leave the flower studio without using the “Cheeseburger Method.”

I adopted this method when one of my early mentors insisted that any arrangement we made as floral designers should look like “I want to eat it.” At first, this sounded crazy, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what makes certain food look so appetizing before we even get a bite, and how that applies to floral design.

Read the rest of this post at https://madefloral.substack.com/p/my-cheeseburger-method-for-color

It’s All Green: Jackets, Leaves, and Outlooks at The Masters

I’m in Augusta, Georgia designing the plants and flowers for my client’s hospitality suites during The Masters week! Oftentimes, professional golf tournaments hire my company to design the plants and flowers for events like this, and I have such a blast on these jobs.

Unlike any other sport, golf and flowers are truly a perfect match. Golfers travel the world, to the most pristine golf courses and spend their tournament days surrounded by nature. The atmosphere of each course is unique – some are by the water on a cliff overlooking the ocean, others are in a tucked away corner of a verdant forest – all of them have that vibrant green color from the grass and flowers surrounding the course, hospitality suites, and clubhouse.

The temperature in Augusta has been between seventy and eighty-five degrees in the afternoons and all the trees are in full green. It feels like the start of summer here, which is a magic on its own for a northeastern girl like me.

While I’m down here during The Masters week, adding plants and flowers for my client’s hospitality suites, I want to share about why flowers are actually so important to the most prestigious golf tournament of the year.

Read the rest of this post at https://madefloral.substack.com/p/green-jackets-leaves-and-outlooks

A Valley in Business: How do you manage a slow season?

The other day, I went on a walk with my friend, Jay, who is a hairdresser. Knowing his business a bit, I knew it was probably a “slow” season for him, but I asked him how work was going and he told me it was going well! He went on to say that in business there are peaks and valleys, and because many of his clients are away on vacation this time of year, he knows that once it starts to get warmer business will pick up.

I thought about this conversation for a while after we spoke. It inspired me to write to you about the “valleys” that we find ourselves in as small business owners. What do you do when you’re in a slow season in your work, when the money isn’t coming in? Do you start to feel a little frantic, worrying that maybe the money won’t ever come in again?

Here are some things I do in my business that help me to navigate the peaks and valleys and to attract more income during those slow periods.

Focus on Abundance

Something I noticed in my conversation with Jay was that he said work was going well even though I could tell by everything he described that he may be in a slow period at work. This doesn't mean that Jay wasn’t being truthful about his work, it means that he was choosing not to make the slow period feel more problematic by giving it energy. He alluded to the reality of peaks and valleys in his business, but he didn’t come right out and say “my business is tanking and the money isn’t coming in.”

Read the rest of this post at https://madefloral.substack.com/p/a-valley-in-business

A Daffodil Story: And the incredible journey that a single flower can take us on

I keep coming across the same sort of spring posts again and again: posts and reels about spring flowers and all their springy facts. Truthfully a lot of it is content you could find in an encyclopedia (remember those?), and much of it feels like the same spring thing I see every year.

More than ever, I want to hear about the real-life moments we face in each new phase of our lives—why certain things evoke memories and pull at your heart strings. With this new season of spring, a spring that has never come before, I want to share about why daffodils are so meaningful—so much more than a simple springtime symbol—to me today.

Read the rest of this post at https://madefloral.substack.com/p/a-daffodil-story

Developing Style in Creative Business: So you started your own business, how do you find your own style?

Something I wish I learned in the early years of my career is that style develops over time. You can’t force it.

All successful creative business owners have gone through the process of developing their own style. It takes building a foundation, looking at inspiration, and then making it your own. Overall, it takes time, but learning these steps can help you bypass long periods of comparison and deliver a product with a style that’s all you!

Build a Foundation

I started my floral design career when I was twenty-four, fifteen years ago, when I worked for a well-known floral designer in Boston, Orly Khon. Eventually taking on my own clients under Orly’s guidance, I learned many fundamentals of floral design through her expert eyes and direction. At that time, I didn’t know what my own style was, but I was slowly learning about what I was attracted to, some basic principles, and options for adding my own flair.

When building the foundation of your style, pay attention to the ways different elements strike you. From colors and shapes to more general aesthetics and approaches, take note of how it lands with you, how it inspires and keeps coming into your mind. I remember certain moments in those early days—the firsts. Like the first time I smelled the intoxicating peppery fragrance from a single stem of stock flower; getting lost in the vibrant color and patterns of an orange dahlia; and studying the freckles on a foxglove. Let these moments become precious to you, because I promise they will become part of your own personal style inventory!

Read the rest of this post at https://madefloral.substack.com/p/developing-style-in-creative-business

Love Notes: My Favorite Messages of Love Through the Years

When a Valentine’s Day order hits my inbox, I like to scroll all the way down to the message the purchaser wants to send along with their loved one’s bouquet. Just like my floral designs, each of these notes conveys so much personality and conjures up a whole wonderful story in my head. Plus, I do love to play the messenger.

From the super-sweet to the slightly silly, here are the three types of love notes I’ve delivered with flowers over the years.

The heart-felt mushy note.

These are my favorite notes—the classics—and they usually say something like, To the love of my life or Love your forever Valentine. So sweet! I immediately wonder what this partnership is like, and I can sense how important these two people are to one another, whether they’ve been together for a few months or a few decades. Other heart-melting messages include the ones from one parent and some kids, We love you so much! The “we” here really makes me feel so good as a business owner—the thought that my flowers are giving a whole family a chance to say “I love you.” You might think that the sweetness of these messages gets old for a florist, but it really doesn’t!

Read the rest of this post at https://madefloral.substack.com/p/love-notes

Get into the Mechanics of Floral Design: Without Leaving Behind the Romance

For the last six months, I’ve been sending you a monthly newsletter, where I share about my experiences in floral design. Thank you so much for following along!

Writing these posts and sharing them with you has truly become a monthly highlight. Even when I struggle to find the time to write, I’m always happy when I can carve out the time to express myself, especially about my business and everything I learn running it.

Introducing a New Tier

Starting next month, I’ll be offering a special paid tier for my newsletter subscribers. You will always be welcome to keep your free subscription. I’m thrilled to have you following along!

Read the rest of this post at https://madefloral.substack.com/p/get-into-the-mechanics-of-floral

A Trip to the Flower Market On a Busy December Morning

I’m on my way to buy flowers. It’s raining heavy and there’s a light fog covering the mainly dark green and grey landscape of the road leading to the flower market. My heart feels somewhat heavy on this December morning, as the season darkens on top of the major life transition of buying my first home, finding my first tenant, preparing for holidays. There are other transitions, too, and I’m thinking about loved ones, hoping they’re okay. Changing, feeling the feelings of being alive.

My head feels a bit heavy, too. Thinking about numbers, colors, spreadsheets, year-end bookkeeping, new year projections, budgets to stick to, meetings, and orders for the day.

Read the rest of this post at https://madefloral.substack.com/p/a-trip-to-the-flower-market

Something You Can Count on this Winter: Winter Bulbs that Bloom Indoors

I’ve had lots of changes happening on my end this fall. After almost five years of saving and two full years of searching, I finally closed on my very own first home in the Black Rock neighborhood of Bridgeport, Connecticut. I’m exhausted and thrilled with all the possibilities of making this new space my own and renting the second floor of this two family house. I still don’t have a couch or a coffee table, but there’s one thing I’ll definitely find a spot for this holiday season, even if it’s just on the floor: an indoor blooming bulb.

I hope this post will give you an appreciation for blooming bulbs, too, and that they’ll make the long, dark months ahead more bearable.

Read the rest of this post at https://madefloral.substack.com/p/something-you-can-count-on-this-winter

Close up photo of a paperwhite flower.