05/12/2026
2025 brought a tremendous amount of growth for The Petaler, but it also brought a great deal of clarity.
We created beautiful work this past year. Work that I am incredibly proud of. But somewhere along the way, I realized that the pace, the pressure, and certain environments we found ourselves in no longer felt aligned with who I wanted to be as a creative or where I wanted to take this business long term.
I found myself asking difficult questions: What do I actually want this company to feel like? What kind of work do I want to create? Who do I want to create alongside?
At the heart of everything we do is a genuine love of flowers, nature, beauty, and thoughtful design. Somewhere along the way, the noise of growth, prestige, expectations, and constant production began to overshadow the quiet joy that made me fall in love with this work in the first place.
There was a moment last year — exhausted, emotionally depleted, collapsed on the floor of a hotel room in Paris, crying — when I realized something needed to change. So I stepped back. The business changed. The team changed. I changed.
Part of returning to the root of it all has been . Emily has shaped me so deeply over the past few years — not just as a designer, but as a creative person. Through her workshops, her gardens, and the incredible community she has cultivated, I have been reminded again and again why I fell in love with flowers in the first place. And then there is Emily herself. It takes a very special person to pour that much work and love into a garden, only to gather a motley crew of strangers each year to cut it all down.
This year, I found myself exiting the train at 11:59 for a 12:00 PM pickup, and as I came down the station stairs, I knew immediately who was already there waiting — the smiles, the laughter, the rain boots — I had spotted the group. Because that is the thing about : it attracts a very special kind of person. The curious, the adventurous, the people eager to learn, and the people willing to stay open to wonder. I have found time and time again that those people are my people.