WOMAN’S FLORAL DELIVERY SERVICE SUPPORTS FLORAL FARMERS

Talia Boone, founder of Postal Petals, created a company out of her desire to create a floral delivery service for people who want to make their own flower arrangements. PHOTOS PROVIDED BY BUZZWORD PR
Talia Boone, founder of Postal Petals, created a company out of her desire to create a floral delivery service for people who want to make their own flower arrangements. PHOTOS PROVIDED BY BUZZWORD PR

 Woman’s floral delivery service supports floral farmers

By Tia Carol Jones
Talia Boone found flower arranging could be a form of wellness and self-care. She went with a friend and it was really relaxing and therapeutic.
Because of the work Boone was doing with her social justice and impact venture, INTER:SECT, she needed that outlet. She started to retreat into flower arranging as a way to cope and reset her thoughts so she could continue to do that work.

Boone started Postal Petals in 2020 during the pandemic. The fresh flower delivery service is designed for people who want to make their own flower arrangements. It began because she wanted to make her own arrangements during the pandemic, but with the Los Angeles Floral Market closed, she sparked up a conversation with a wholesale flower distributor. She realized a Do-It-Yourself floral delivery service didn’t exist in the way she was looking for, and the floral farms were looking for new ways to bring their products to market.

Boone saw an opportunity to enter the floral industry with Postal Petals in May 2020. It launched in Beta in July 2020, and in September 2020, there was a soft launch. Since then, the company has been growing.

When Postal Petals launched in Beta, there were 20 farms signed up to ship consumer-sized boxes, with the variety it needed. Boone wanted to be intentional about representation in the floral space. She wanted to make sure the hands and faces teaching the virtual floral arrangement session she was hosting, were melanin-rich hands and faces.

Boone went out intentionally to look for Black florists. It led to a space on Postal Petals’ website that has a database for Black florists by State. There also is a spotlight of Black florists on the site each Friday.

“The goal there is really to say, we love DIY floral arranging, but DIY floral arranging is not appropriate for every occasion, not appropriate for funerals or people in hospitals or people convalescing or anything like that. But, for the times when you need Black florists or Black floral designers for arrangements or events or weddings or anything like that, here is a database of Black florists you can refer to in cities all across the country,” she said.

Boone was connected to Debra Prinzing who owns Slow Flowers, an online directory of florists, studio designers, wedding and event planners, supermarket flower departments, as well as flower farmers who are committed to using flowers grown in America. She was also connected to Teresa Speight, author of Black Flora. Speight and Boone started talking about Black floral farmers and Boone wanted to figure out how to support them.

Boone is in the process with Postal Petals to take in flowers from Black floral farms across the country and package and send them from the companies distribution centers. The goal is to curate them into a mix which will appeal to the customers. Postal Petals partnered with Black Girl Florists, a collection of Black woman florists, founded by Valerie Crisostomo.

“What we’re really doing is trying to disrupt the floral industry by changing the way people engage with flowers, from this ready to use product to an interactive wellness experience and in the process really utilizing flowers as a form of mindfulness and wellness,” Boone said.

Boone and Postal Petals are doing community wellness events, bringing in yoga teachers and sound bath mediation to help people engage with flowers as a tool for mindfulness. Postal Petals wants to model what Homeboys Industries, based in Los Angeles is doing, by looking to build and run their own community floral farms across the country. Also, to teach agricultural skills to youth and returning citizens.

For more information about Postal Petals, visit www.postalpetals.com.

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