Meet Michelle Lane | Florist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Michelle Lane and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michelle, why did you pursue a creative career?
There was never really a decision to pursue a creative career because I have always pursued creative careers. I have never done anything else! Before I found creative expression through floristry, I was always a performing artist. A singer, actor, dancer, “Triple Threat” whose toes once touched the broadway boards in NYC. At the beginning of the Covid pandemic, I lost my creative outlet when theatre shutdown.

During that time, my partner and I had been planning our wedding and we decided to keep our date in May of 2020. We knew at some point, we would be able to celebrate with friends and family but for now, we just wanted to be married. So we planned a private wedding in our backyard with our kids and immediate family.

So many things about that day needed to be adjusted from our initial expectations. Florals were a small part of that. One that I had no idea would change the course of the rest of my career. When faced with the challenge of creating my own bridal bouquet, I scoured the internet looking up “how to” videos to learn everything I could. Thank God for YouTube! After watching a few tutorials, I felt well-equipped to at least give it a try! The day before our wedding, I went to Trader Joe’s (luckily it was peony season!) and got a few bunches of pretty flowers.

My first try was “meh”… not the greatest, but then I took it apart and tried again. This time, I was content with what I made. I posted photos on Facebook and friends made comments like “Wow! You made that?!”, “You’re a natural at that!”, and “OMG! You should open a flower shop!”. I laughed at these comments thinking about me being a florist in a flower shop! Little did I know what would then follow.

Over the next several months, going to Trader Joe’s on the weekends became my “Weekend Floral Habit”. It saved me creatively. I had something that I could do that made me feel like an artist in such a new, refreshing way! I started cataloging my floral hobby on Instagram. With that, came the requests from friends and family. With each new request, I learned how to do something new from different sizes and shapes to funeral arrangements and florals for elopements.

The thing I couldn’t explain was how naturally it all came to me. I’d walk into a floral wholesaler’s cooler and I’d just choose flowers that made sense to me. I would usually start with one “star” flower that was going to be the basis for the whole arrangement. I gravitated towards flowers that had multiple colors within the bloom like dahlias or protea. I could pull individual colors from each part of the flower and find other flowers to relate to it. I loved mixing textures and shapes of each variety too. I was a natural at this! The artist in me found a new canvas, a new way to express myself and create beauty for others.

I have never been super interested in studying or reading growing up. Even in my area of interest, musical theatre. So when I found myself reading, searching up new things, learning about all the different areas of the floral business, I knew I had found something I was truly hungry for. I had never experienced passion in this way. My constant curiosity for this new found passion surprised me in so many ways. I watched all the tutorials, signed up for many classes, learn all the flower names – I couldn’t. get. enough.

Even now, my curiosity to learn and create new things still drives me to be a better florist with every new event I take on. I still take classes, learn from some of the best florists and push myself to try things I’ve never done before!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My wearable designs really set me apart from my fellow floral artists. I hear it a lot from a lot of florists I respect and admire for all the amazing things they do! The way I create pieces like floral tattoos, floral jewelry, lapel pieces, pocket squares and the way I make corsages definitely sets me apart from the more traditional florists. My trusted friend and colleague, Emma also calls me her “arch specialist” 😆 which was another thing that came pretty naturally to me: being able to create large installations for weddings that have a natural, organic flow and garden-inspired feel to them. The centerpieces I design also possess that same garden, organic aesthetic that a lot of people seem to gravitate towards.

I am the most proud when I look at how quickly my business has grown and how much I’ve learned in such a short time. I feel like a sponge these days! I have only been doing this for two years and the confidence I have found and the experience I’ve gained in the last year in particular has been so life-changing. I am so excited to see where this journey takes me and all the lives my floral designs will touch.

Getting to where I am today has not been easy! I have taken over my house on many occasions and in more ways than one!
I have had to invest in expensive equipment and in vessels and equipment, build a reputation for myself within the industry and push myself to be better constantly.

As a gay florist, I definitely saw how heteronormative the wedding industry had been over the years. When I was planning my wedding, I was asked so many times, “… and what is your groom’s name?” Or in the templates available online which only had examples of “husband and wife” or “his and hers”. I definitely found an area that I became proud to be a part of the change! I helped one of my floral educators, Alison Ellis educate fellow florist on improving their language and terms to be more inclusive in their business practices. This kind of work really ignited something even brighter inside me because I felt like I was apart of a bigger change at work.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If it was a placed I’d been before, I would take her to New York City, hands down. We would wake up early and go downtown to experience the amazing flower market there, and get some fresh flowers to play with in our hotel. We would eat at all my old haunts including all the pizza we could handle. Every night, we would go out to see a different show on Broadway. Then after each show, we would go out my friends in those shows and get drinks and laugh and have fun.  Other nights, we might go to some of the gay bars in the city or see a late night drag show – so much fun! During the day, we would go for strolls through Central Park, maybe visit some cool exhibits in the museums and stop by to visit my old neighborhood, Hells Kitchen. I’d show them my old stomping grounds. We would go to H&H bagels to get them fresh out of the oven in the morning—SO GOOD! And one thing I always have to do in NYC is stop in for a voice lesson with my favorite teacher, Sally Wilfert and drop into my musical theatre acting class with Craig Carnelia because I always do!

If it was somewhere new, I’d love to plan an adventure through Italy! Being Italian myself, I would love to go to the towns my great grandparents parents were from, take some cooking classes, try all the Italian wines… eat, pray, love all of that!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I have so many wonderful teachers that helped me along my journey: Alison Ellis of The Real Flower Business, Susan McLeary aka “Passionflower Sue” and most recently Tabitha Abercrombie of Winston and Main. I also have another florist who has become one of my trusted confidants and gave me my first opportunity to try all the things I had learned online in the wedding and event industry, Emma Seitz of Leta Verbena. Another person who really influenced my original design aesthetic is someone I don’t think considers herself a teacher! Christina Stembel of Farmgirl Flowers. During the pandemic, before I invested in actual floral courses, I was tuning into her on Instagram. Every week, she would do a live video making a flower arrangement. I spent so many hours just watching her design!

One of the first books that blew my mind was Susan McLeary’s “The Art of Wearable Flowers”. I had a history in jewelry design that started at the age of 13 when my uncle passed on all of his jewelry supplies to me after he passed. Susan McLeary also had jewelry design in her history and she combined her love of flowers with jewelry and revolutionized wearables. To this day, the items I make that she taught me to do help me to stand out from the rest in such a special way. I will forever be grateful to her.

Website: www.somethings-blooming.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/somethingsbloomingla

Facebook: www.facebook.com/somethingsbloomingla

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/somethings-blooming-canoga-park

Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/somethingsbloomingla/

Image Credits
Monica Linda Photography, Todd Danforth Photography, Julie Shuford Photography, Jenn Spain Photography