Ep. 134: Rooted in Heritage: How Jamaican Roots Guide Olivee Floral

Building Olivee Floral In today’s BB Podcast episode (No. 134), we’re visiting with Karla Smith-Brown, founder of Olivee Floral. Karla’s inspiring journey evolved from a career in public relations to becoming a successful floral artist. Her story isn’t just about flowers; it’s about weaving passion, sustainability, and heritage with personal connections to make a powerful impact. Starting out, Karla offered pop-up events and hand-tied bouquets, gradually building her brand (named after her great grandmother, Medorah Olivee Wright). With a design aesthetic influenced by her Jamaican heritage, she developed a signature wild yet refined style. As Olivee Floral grew, Karla began to view flowers as a medium for art, not just for traditional events. Now, she works with brands like Vogue, Birkenstock, and Nike, often being sought out because of the strong professional relationships she’s built and the unique design aesthetic she’s developed. Join us as we chat with Karla about: the significance of using locally grown and sustainable flowers for funeral arrangements addressing the challenges and taboos surrounding discussions of funeral flowers in society innovative approaches to creating sustainable funeral flower designs without floral foam the role of florists in educating families about sustainable options and practices the potential for changing perceptions of funeral flowers to make them more approachable the impact of creative and sustainable practices on the floral industry and communities This episode of the Botanical Brouhaha Podcast is brought to you by: BLOOM TRUST CO. A curated collection of floral resources you can trust.  Click here to learn more.   You can find show notes and more episodes of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast at botanicalbrouhaha.com, and you can find the BB Podcast co-hosts on IG @botanicalbrouhaha and @hey.nataliegill. This episode of The Botanical Brouhaha Podcast was produced by Joel McGee. Original music by Landon McGee.     

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Do you own a flower business or dream of starting one? Are you looking for practical floral design tips? Ever wonder how other florists run their businesses? Or maybe you’re a farmer florist building a flower farm and floral design business at the same time? You’ve landed in the right place! At the BB Podcast, we serve floral designers, farmer florists, flower shop owners, and aspiring florists by diving into practical tips and insider information from real working florists, floral educators, flower growers, and floral industry vendors to help you find the tools you need to start, run, and grow your flower business. We like to mix it up! Do you prefer hearing real-life stories or diving into specific flower business topics? Either way, we’ve got you covered. Listen to our storytelling episodes featuring floral professionals sharing the details of starting and running their flower businesses. So many stories just waiting for you to dig in and learn from those who are doing what you want to do! Browse our topic-specific interviews where you can expect everything from conversations on marketing, staffing, and floral software to pain points like finding your mojo or listening to your intuition in business. Amy McGee, Botanical Brouhaha founder, brings years of relationship building with floral designers, farmer florists, and floral professionals to the table and invites you to pull up a chair for the conversations where you’ll learn and be inspired by the nitty gritty transparency of the questions she asks. The BB Podcast is co-hosted by Natalie Gill, owner of Native Poppy.