Meet Jaimie Reeves
Jaimie Reeves has been working with flowers her entire life. Her love of nature and floral design began early as she spent her childhood helping out and eventually working as a florist in her family-owned garden centre. She soon turned her passion for creative floral design into her own full-time business in 2013, beginning as a retail flower and plant shop providing design services, and now focuses solely on weddings and other big events through her design studio, Inscape Floral.
Jaimie co-founded and continues to run The Local Flower Collective; since its inception in 2018, the Collective has been mandated to support local flower farmers and provide Toronto-area florists with access to uncommon, and chemically untreated flowers that are (most-importantly) grown within two hours of Toronto. The membership-based collective features an online wholesale webshop, a communal design studio, decor rentals for events, and a vibrant network of local activity.
1. What is your astrological sign or Chinese zodiac year? My sign is Virgo and I was born in the Year of the Ox.
2. What book(s) are on your bedside table right now? Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard and Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore.
3. What do you want our guests to know about Canada's local fl ower/Slow Flower orhorticulture/garden scene? That it's amazing! Is that too general? We have such incredible and talented farmers and florists and the flowers selection is so diverse. It can range from farm to farm even within the same zone. I am also looking forward to more people planting and selling native species as cuts for commercial use.
4. Share something that you're excited about exploring in your floral enterprise this year? This year we are dedicating more time to get to know our members and do farm tours. I'm so exited to get to see more of what our members do, learn from them and share it with everyone who follows along.
5. What is the craziest or most clever thing you've done to pack flowers or plants for travel? I've actually never done this! It's a bit rare for me to travel, as in fly with flowers within Canada (I believe...). But my skills at packing a van for a wedding setup are quite good. People will tell me, "Jaimie, it's not going to fit", and I always make it work. I maaaaayyy have transported seeds from another country to Canada but maybe we won't talk about that ;) I've definitely lost a number of floral knives at security because I usually always have one on me and tend to forget to check pre-flight.
Learn from Jaimie Tuesday, June 25th, Illustrated lecture and design demonstrations, followed by a Q&A
COLLECTIVE SELLING: FLOWER COOPS AND COLLECTIVES
Our panel introduces two regional flower hub models, as the founders discuss how they established a farm-to-florist wholesale market for Edmonton, Alberta (Cooperative Flower Network) and Toronto, Ontario (The Local Flower Collective).You'll meet Moira MacKinnon from the Cooperative Flower Network, based in Edmonton, Alberta, and Jaimie Reeves, a florist who co-founded Toronto's solely-owned The Local Flower Collective. These women will discuss their journeys, the decisions that led to their format, and the benefits that collective flower hubs bring to the floral communities they serve.
