Flowers have long been a staple of first dates and weddings alike. They freshen up newly-christened homes and adorn gardens passed down through generations. Yet flowers only last so long, and many meet their end in a dumpster or a compost heap. But what if you could preserve flowers and the memories they represent?
That’s the question Helen Hamilton chose to address when she started up Flora & Frame, a Whistler business that offers clients the ability to press and preserve entire bouquets.
It’s a niche industry, to say the least. Hamilton has only ever known one person who enjoyed preserving flowers: her grandmother, Jean Rosemary Clark.
“It was something she loved to do,” Hamilton reminisced. “We would be out walking in parks and in the forest, and she would often collect wildflowers or just from her garden, and she would just press them in books. She had little gold frames all around her house.
“Funnily enough, [my sister and I] never did it with her when we were children.”
Clark passed away six months short of what would have been her 100th birthday. Hamilton hated seeing all the flowers from Clark’s brightly-decorated funeral go to waste—so she and her sister decided to save many of them and bring them back to Canada.
Despite her lack of experience, Hamilton’s initial foray into flower-pressing proved successful. At first, it was simply a way for her and her loved ones to honour the late matriarch of their family. Yet Hamilton is also a goal-oriented person, and before long the wheels started turning in her head.
The Surrey, England native has already worked as a freelance wedding hair and makeup artist for some time. She knows how much most brides spend on bouquets, which are largely thrown out after the big day. Could there be an opportunity to help women hold onto all of those flowers?
Saving memories
Hamilton ran the idea by members of her existing clientele, and they were all in.
“Brides definitely love the idea of keeping those flowers and having them on the wall to enjoy for a lifetime, really,” she said. “And I’ve had lots of friends reach out, as they’ve got some special-occasion flowers. There are also partners that want to do something for their girlfriends.”
An established entrepreneur in the Sea to Sky corridor, Hamilton is known for her Strange Daze Collective pre-loved and vintage clothing pop-ups in addition to her work in the wedding industry. Throughout it all, she’s remained environmentally conscious, and intends to stick to her principles with Flora & Frame.
“I’ve always come up with ideas to live a lifestyle that allows me to [be my own boss], but I am always hesitant to create products or do a business that involves mass manufacture. It doesn’t fit well with me,” Hamilton explained.
“Obviously, in the modern world, it’s really hard to avoid that if you want to do a business of any kind, but I stick to more environmentally friendly, sustainable businesses that can run alongside saving or recycling something, because I really do think that’s the way we need to think now.”
Hamilton and her team try to preserve as many flowers as possible from each order and aim to eventually make their frames from recycled wood. She thinks her new venture could really take off in the next few years, given the number of weddings taking place in Whistler. If all goes well, she intends to expand operations and begin serving more areas throughout the province.
Flora & Frame also helps Hamilton stay in touch with her feminine side in a part of the world where action sports are prevalent. She is an avid cyclist, snowboarder and skateboarder, but feels it is healthy to balance those pursuits with more relaxing, meditative work. Above all, she hopes to help more people buy and enjoy flowers with confidence.
“I’ve always loved flowers, but I’ve always been a little bit more reserved about buying them too often, given that that growth cycle is not super sustainable,” she said. “It’s amazing to preserve them in time, because otherwise they would just slowly die. I find it really fascinating that you can take that flower and preserve it in time, and it lasts forever.”
For more information, visit https://www.floraandframe.com/
