Episode 417: Meet Hometown Flower Collective – a Mobile and Digital Florist on Long Island

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-