We care about People, Nature, and Beauty,
and we think you do too.
It's about People.
Our mission is to delight our customers and our neighbors.
We plant, harvest, and create with intention. We relish the way flowers can light up someone's face and add elegance to a wedding celebration.
We have the pleasure of interacting with so many people as they walk by our Grady Avenue farm spot: long-time residents, UVA students, professors, and visitors. There's something about a garden that gives strangers permission to strike up a conversation and we love connecting with our community there!
We plant and maintain 2 free vegetable patches for our neighbors as a gift back to this community.
It's about Nature.
75-80% of cut flowers in the US come from abroad, mostly grown with heavy pesticide use, flown here (yes, airplanes), then trucked to warehouses and stores where they wait to be purchased. Many go unsold and end up in landfills...that huge carbon footprint wasted. ​
There is a better way. ​
​Our farm is a small network of three unused city lots.
Our focus is on quality over quantity. ​
Our sustainability practices include:
Adding tons of local compost to our low-till beds
Planting drought-tolerant species including many natives
Using low-impact drip irrigation
Companion planting and cover cropping
Using organic fertilizers only
Using sustainable floral mechanics instead of foam
It's about Beauty.
​​I am entranced by how beautiful flowers can be. When I freelanced on my first wedding, I felt like I didn't need to eat, drink, or sleep, as long as I could keep working with the flowers. I still get the same flower buzz every time I work on event florals! Some of the best cut flowers grow locally and have a great vase life but do not ship well, which is why you never see them in stores. Our flowers are super fresh and they reflect the unique FLORA here in Charlottesville season by season. We believe that everyone needs beauty and everyone deserves beauty. We give away unsold bouquets to neighbors and offer sponsored deliveries to area nursing homes during our blooming season.
My earliest flower memory is our neighbor handing me a floppy, fragrant garden rose over the fence. There was bright sunlight reflecting off every surface and I can still see the warm copper color of the anthers.​
​
Years later, after studying architecture at UVA, I worked in residential design-build but always had at least a small garden that served as a reprieve from the computer, sawdust, and nail guns.
I discovered my passion for floral design helping my mother-in-law with some family weddings and honed my skills as a freelancer. I quickly discovered an overlap from architectural design: scale, form, texture, movement, and color. I adored the ephemeral, circular nature of it: going from vision to manifestation to compost and back to the earth.
​​
I started FLORA in 2023 as a more fulfilling and less toxic occupation than renovating old houses. It's still a lot of work but oh. so. beautiful. Whether it's a bouquet or event design, I would love to share this passion with you!
Hi! I'm Hope.
