When Florence Kennedy started using Instagram a little more than six years ago, she did so for one simple reason: “Mainly to spam friends with photos of my dog,” she says.

Two beautiful stores rise from the ashes of 2008’s Great Recession. In 2008, Solabee’s co-owner, Sarah Helmstetter, and I had both been managing floral departments in two different locations. The financial crisis hit, and within three months, our floral departments had lost 60 percent of business. It was a blood bath. I took a layoff option and set out to find work, which wasn’t there. Sarah and I teamed up to help each other.

How big of a trend is “floral couture” in your shop and among your customers? If you sell “wearable florals,” what items are the most popular? Or is this trend something that we, as florists, are just entertaining ourselves with?

When she was young, Bianca Rosen would spend lots of time in the garden with her mother, time that helped nurture an innate passion for nature that she’s always had with her. That time and passion also melded well with Bianca’s creative and artistic tendencies – and her longstanding fascination with flowers.