In 2016, life as Christine Guenther knew it had turned upside down. Just two days after her daughter was born, her sister passed away. “It was definitely the hardest time of my life,” she said. As Guenther, who had a degree in hospitality management and had worked as a restaurant general manager, looked for a path forward, her husband Joey asked a pivotal question: “If you could reinvent yourself, what would you do?”

Guenther envisioned a space where she could bring her daughter and dog to work and find joy in her workdays. When a business broker pointed out a flower shop for sale, she was skeptical. She’d never worked with flowers before, but something about the concept wouldn’t let her go. When she visited, she knew she’d found the right fit. It was charming, albeit in a way she found outdated. She bought the business in 2016, and under her ownership, that little flower shop has transformed into Wildflower, a thriving floral and gift brand with two locations in the Annapolis, Maryland, area.

Guenther talked to ICSC Small Business Center contributing editor Rebecca Meiser about Wildflower’s origins, the rebranding process and her plans for the business.

What was your first impression of the store, which was called The Petal Pusher before you took over?

I sent my husband there on a recon mission when my daughter was 2 months old. He came home and was like, “No, this is not for you.” It felt really dated, he said. Old ladies work there. He brought me this bouquet of flowers that was not the most inspirational bouquet of flowers I ever saw. He said: “Let’s keep looking for the thing.” But a couple more months went by and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I told Joey: “I really need to go see this place myself. You’re saying it wasn’t valuable, but the business had been in business for over 30 years so they must be doing something right.” When we walked in, I could really visualize myself being there. I said: “This is it.”

What made you realize this was the right location and concept for you?

It had this kind of kitschy retail appeal. There was something very homey about it. We had looked into franchising a Jimmy John’s. We considered a gas station franchise, but my heart was not in any of those. They also weren’t an environment that I could imagine raising my family in, but when I was in the flower shop, I was like: Oh, I can bring my daughter here and work and be productive.

Were negotiations to buy the business complicated?

We purchased the assets of the business. There was some negotiation, but the seller was 62. She was planning her retirement. Her children weren’t interested in carrying on in the business, so she was pretty motivated to move forward.

Did you think you were going to update the concept or keep it as is?

I came into the business knowing nothing about the floral industry or floral design. I had worked in retail in college, but I didn’t have experience managing a retail store. The owner stayed on with me for six months. It was part of our negotiation for her to teach me everything about the business. We also hired the floral designer that had been working there. I had a bench of talent to carry us through, so rebranding wasn’t in the plan in the beginning. But one thing I felt as time went on and I was starting to become more comfortable in the business is that the store had a very feminine feeling. That’s also just the floral industry in general; people associate floral with femininity. But I saw some people not being super comfortable in the store. The design room was in the basement, so customers couldn’t see the flower coolers with the flowers or the designers. It was just this mysterious thing. What if we were to create a flower brand that was very approachable and comfortable for people? Instead of having to know the names of flowers, you could see all the flowers and just pick out the one that’s beautiful to you.

Your second location — a 1,100-square-foot space in Arnold, Maryland, that opened in 2019 — is really where you built the brand you are known for. Can you talk about that?

I had my eye on a space about 20 minutes away from the original Petal Pusher. I visited the center a lot because our pediatrician was in the building. It had a lot of businesses where people were in and out really quick. I thought it would be a great place for a flower shop. One of reason for the original rebrand was that there was a bike shop close to the location called Pedal Pushers bike store. I thought: We can’t have The Petal Pusher florist and then a few miles down the road, there’s the Pedal Pushers bike shop. And to me Petal Pusher was an effeminate, older, dated flower shop brand. When we incorporated in 2016, we incorporated as Wildflower LLC because I just loved the word and the name. Maybe it was just subconscious that I was going to have a shop called Wildflower one day.

What made the new store different?

The big thing was getting the flowers out of the basement. Both stores have full displays of flowers by the stem that are prominent [so] people can just see them and choose what’s visually appealing that day. The second thing is the original store just concentrated on flowers. They sold things like balloons, generic candy and greeting cards that you could add to your flower purchase, but that was pretty much it. With Wildflower, we started bringing gifting to the forefront. We have items that are local, regional and American-made [like mohair headbands and candles and soaps]. We also carry a full line of products here for what I call “wannabe floral designers.” We have all the tools you would need if you wanted to be a hobby florist. We also sell corsage- and boutonniere-making kits for dances.

You started the rebranding with the Arnold location. Then you converted the original store to the Wildflower brand. You’ve since closed that original location and moved to a 4,200-square-foot space in Glen Burnie, Maryland. With the rebranding and the move, were you able to keep the old clients?

The brand wasn’t a true change of brand. It was really an upgrade of the brand and a clarification about who we are, what we’re about, what flowers are for and who they’re for. We still have a lot of clients today that I call the OG Petal Pusher clients that have been with me since 2016 when I bought the store, but I also feel like I’m a change agent. I’m very comfortable with change. There are some clients that I lost that years later have come back around.

How do you source your flowers and have you faced supply chain issues?

We have a local wholesaler that imports products from all over the world. [Last] year, we also worked with three different Maryland-based farms for the entirety of their growing season. From February to November, there’s a good amount to source locally, and we also have two farms in California that direct ship to us via Southwest Airlines. We have also recently started working with companies in Miami that import flowers [from around the world] and then truck them to us.

People have no idea how many flowers move all over the world and how quickly they can get from one place to another place. For instance, white roses for several months in the spring will triple in price and become extremely limited in availability because it’s the season when everybody wants their wedding to be saturated with white roses. We don’t sell by the specific flower. We tend to sell things by a color palette or a look or an aesthetic, and that gives us the operational freedom to flip-flop. If we’re in a moment that white roses are unaffordable or unavailable, we can pick a different white flower and still achieve the same look.

Do you do a lot of weddings?

Weddings are about 10% of our sales. That’s not the majority of what we do.  And weddings are often one of the less profitable portions of a florist business makeup. We’ve asked ourselves the question before: Is it worth it to do weddings because they’re hard and complicated and you really need that specific flower? But this brand, Wildflower, is about showing up for people for every occasion in their lives where they need flowers. I feel like it would be going against our brand and who we are and what we set out to do to not to not do weddings.

Are you profitable?

We’ve leveraged every piece of ourselves and personal debt and credit cards and lines of credit. Now, we finally have a reasonably healthy profit for a business of this size, but it’s hard. We have great reviews and I’m so thankful for that, but we had [a Google Review] not too long ago that was, I think, only four out of five stars, which as a small business owner cuts you. They wrote something like: I think their prices are a little expensive compared to what you could get similarly somewhere else.

I was like: But will you get [products] that are locally made at a woman-owned business that is based locally, employing people in this local community? There’s more to it than just the price competition with Target or Amazon.

What’s been your biggest challenge as a small business owner?

It’s recruiting the right people. It’s retaining the right people. It’s trying to build and maintain a work culture that’s so aligned with what we do, which is about joy and happiness and beauty and art and sustainability and trying to maintain all those things while keeping the business profitable, keeping the business solvent, providing great service.

Where do you want to be in five and 10 years?

We’re looking for another location. I would love to say we’ll have a few more stores. If you ask me “How many do you want to have?” I don’t know. I don’t want to lose what we are — a very small, hyperlocal, involved-company store.