Jaclyn Rutigliano and Marc Iervolino of Hometown Flower Collective (c) Hometown Flower Co.
Jaclyn Rutigliano of Hometown Flower Collective is today's guest. During our conversation, you'll hear us trying to recall how we originally connected. And finally, while writing this intro, I searched my email archives to find the back story of how Jaclyn and I really did meet!
A new concept (with a twist) for Long Island floral customers -- the mobile flower truck that comes to you! (c) Erica Schroeder photography
In March 2015, she reached out to me via the Slow Flowers "contact us" form. She wrote: Hi there, I handle public relations and communications for the slow fashion brand Zady (Zady.com) and we are currently coordinating our events for Fashion Revolution Day and Earth Day. I am wondering if there is someone I can speak with about possibly bringing in a slow flowers aspect to our events. I would love to connect and look forward to hearing from you.
Long Island-grown flowers on the "baby blue" mobile flower shop (c) Erica Schroeder photography
That email led to a long phone call during which Jaclyn brought me up to speed on slow fashion and I brought her up to speed on slow flowers -- and we discussed some possible cross-promotions and collaborations. In her follow-up note to me, Jaclyn signed off with these comments:
I am going to spend a ton of time digging into your site but if you have any other initial suggestions for where I can begin to tackle these issues from the retail and floral design standpoint, I would love to look into that for my parents. Who knows- maybe I will take on the family business one day after all!
Fast-forward to this past January and I again heard from Jaclyn. It was long after her gig with Zady ended and many years after my Field to Vase Dinner Tour consulting that we referenced. But of course I remembered her immediately.
Hometown Flower Collective's web site
This time, Jaclyn had
some news that delighted me:
Happy New Year and I hope this finds you well. You likely
don’t remember but we had emailed nearly four years ago at my previous job when
I was representing a company called Zady which was focused on the sustainable
fashion movement. I am from a family of florists and when I heard about your
slow flowers movement, it really resonated with me and you were kind enough to
provide some additional reading materials for me to further educate
myself.
From Long Island flower farms to Long Island floral customers (c) Francesca Russell photography
Years later, my husband and I are in the planning stages to
open up our own business . . . possibly a mixed use retail space which will
have the retail arm of my parents’ floral event design business. I am keen to
approach this differently as currently, I don’t believe there is any florist in
Long Island focused on locally sourced flowers. I really want to provide
artistically designed flowers that embrace natural beauty, lesser known
flowers, greens, naturally grown varieties, etc. And it would be great to
source these within a 50 mile radius or at least domestically. Our business
will be focused on a tight inventory to minimize waste and to embrace what is
readily available.
I would love to receive some guidance in terms of identifying
the right farmers, varieties, the questions to ask, etc. It will be easy for me
to follow the same path of my family and just source product from a regular
importer but I would love to support local small farmers and source directly-
though there are concerns about the cost associated. We are even considering
planting our own flowers as well.
Anyways, I’m not sure if you do this or are speaking anywhere on the east coast in the future but I would love to learn from you to help get on the right foot.
Hometown Flower Collective offers a floral subscription (left) and festive, floral-focused events (right) (c) Hometown Flower Collective photographs