We care about People, Nature, and Beauty,
and we think you do too.
It's about People. We care about our customers and our neighbors.
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 magic 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!
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:
Using our e-bike for deliveries when possible
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 only organic fertilizers
Using sustainable floral mechanics instead of single-use ones
_edited_edited.jpg)
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.
You can't find beauty like this at a big box store or conventional florist. 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.
​Everyone needs beauty and everyone deserves beauty. We give away unsold bouquets to neighbors and hope that you will support our Share the Love effort to bring fresh flowers to folks in local nursing homes.
My earliest flower memory is our neighbor handing me a floppy white garden rose about over the chain link fence between our houses. The scent was incredible and there was bright sunlight reflecting off of every surface. I can still picture 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 on some family weddings and honed my skills as a freelancer. I quickly discovered an overlap from my other design training: scale, form, texture, movement, and color. I adored the ephemeral, circular nature of it: going from vision to manifestation to compost in a matter of weeks compared to the lengthy process of building design!
​​
I started FLORA in 2023 in an effort to find 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.
