About The Graceful Gardenia

named in honor of my mother Linda Brown. 

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Flowers are, generally speaking, only given during sentimental times. Being it a somber or sorry, happy, loving, healthy, or celebratory time. You deserve the flowers and person behind them giving the same time and care you are by providing them to the ones you love. That's where I come in!

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My grandfather, Les Brown, began making children's furniture out of his basement in 1924 as an engineer for Krohler in Naperville (5th Ave Train Station!), known as the world's largest manufacturer of upholstered furniture. His children's line found a steady market and he and his wife, my grandmother, Rose Brown, started their own Les Brown Chair Company with my grandmother as the head of all finance and secretarial work. 

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My father, Mike Brown, and his siblings joined the family business along with 175 employees - one of them being Phil Holler, grandfather to my friend and now business partner Cindy Hyett (parents Steve & MaryKay Hyett) - in downtown Naperville. My dad Mike is still hard at work to this day at 76 years old and is my mentor, role model, and the hardest working man I have ever known.  He loves his family, friends, his country, animals, Da Bears, Cubbies, and is everything I am striving to be. 

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Eight years ago I was arranging flowers in my parents home and my mom said, "you should do something with flowers, you love them and you're so good at it." I brushed it off until May 25, 2015 when my mom passed suddenly.  It wasn't until then I understood how important flowers and scent could bring us back to the ones we loved. I can remember like it was yesterday the flowers at my grandma's house, the double lilacs on both sides of my house growing up transplanted from their home, the smell of them in bloom in spring, and my mom putting a vase of them freshly cut in my room after school. 

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We had bushes of peonies my mom would cut and arrange beautifully just for me. Every year on my birthday my mom would pick a bunch of sunflowers and put them next to my bed. My dad planted a bed of impatiens next to my mom's favorite seat outside in the yard. And then the gardenia... meaning "a secret love between two people."

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When my mom passed I lost me. I gave up. I lost my love and my passion. I was confused and on a whim I signed up for a floral design school because flowers always made me happy. 

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I knew at that moment I was right where I was supposed to be. I knew my mom was right, she was always right. 

Now to honor her legacy and build upon the entreprenuer skills my dad has instilled in me, I want to provide the moments everyone remembers in smells and colors.  

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