Interview with Jen from Nectar & Bloom
I've had the pleasure of getting to know Jen over the past year and am so excited to share a little about her today with you because she is a flower powerhouse! She's not only a floral educator, but also a poet, writer, Reiki practitioner, yoga instructor, Ayurvedic health counselor, and so much more. I've already pre-ordered her new tarot deck that integrates the meaning of flowers with the tarot and can't wait to get my hands on it!
Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself!
A: Hello flower friends! I'm Jen, founder of Nectar & Bloom, where we offer transformative floral education for your mind, soul, and body. My passion is to empower floral artists and flower enthusiasts into holistic success and fulfillment by providing education and immersive experiences that support the creative process alongside the creative person.
I grew up on an organic produce farm in the midwest, where my big sister and I grew flowers alongside our parents' business that we sold as bouquets at local farmers markets. I moved to California for college and graduate school where I studied writing & storytelling, then pursued an academic career as a professor of English while studying yoga and other healing modalities, when I realized that I wanted to create a business of my own. Eventually I brought it all together in Nectar & Bloom, where I create my art and serve my community.
It has been a colorful journey and an adventure growing my business, and now I am thrilled and so grateful to have built this avenue through which I can support and guide others on their creative and entrepreneurial journeys as well.
Q: Your new flower Tarot deck is absolutely breathtaking. What inspired you to create it?
A: Thank you so much! The Tarot of Flowers came to me as an idea that asked me to bring it into being on New Year's Day in 2019. My husband Carr and I had taken little trip out to Joshua Tree to celebrate the new year in the desert, and I was excitedly journaling about my intentions to start building ways to move away from flowering weddings and into my callings as a writer and healer.
I love Tarot and oracle decks, and I suddenly felt wildly inspired to create one of my own that shared the metaphoric wisdom of flowers. I wanted to provide others with guidance and insights from the wealth of healing energy that flowers possess, so I started by slowly building a manuscript of all of the flowers I wanted to include. I drafted my writeups about each flower by combining my knowledge from working with them first hand with my research about their origins, growth habits, and folkloric meanings. I also worked to weave in the incredible perspectives I've gathered in my studies of yoga, Reiki, Ayurveda, and other healing modalities.
Over time I decided to shape the deck around the archetypal structure of the Tarot, a 78-card set with 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana cards that have specific suits, numbers, and meanings. As a writer, I found this to be exactly the element to guide my final flower selections and to further deepen the flower card meanings I had been creating.
Q: I know that you created the deck with your sister, which is so special. How was it working together?
A: While at first I wasn't sure exactly how I would have the deck illustrated (or photographed), it eventually dawned on me to ask my talented sister, who is an artist as well, if she would be open to joining me on the project to illustrate it. When she said "yes," the project took on a whole new meaning. It was the best thing that could have happened.
Though we didn't think about it at the time, my sister and I had worked together before (all those years ago growing and selling flowers on our parents' farm), so working together was not new. More importantly, she and I have this deep energetic cohesiveness, I think, that makes it easy for us to understand one another. Perhaps it comes from being close in age (she is only 2 and a half years older than me), or perhaps it has to do with a closeness we shared from when we were two little girls who wanted to be twins.
At any rate, where we are alike, we are so aligned, and where we are different we are very complementary. I am more extroverted, outspoken, verbal, perfectionistic, a project starter, and for lack of a better word "poetic." She is more introverted, unstoppably patient, so skilled with all modes of drawing and painting, collaborative, a finisher, and practical. We are both creative and hard working, and we are both are happiest when working, especially with a meaningful project.
I can safely say that the Tarot of Flowers would be next to nothing without the talent and teammate of my sister. I am so grateful for her exquisite original artwork, as well as her input and support throughout this process. It's been a super meaningful project for me, to say the least, and it's sweet to think that here we are, grown women sisters making an experience for others in the language of flowers together, just like we did as little girls growing and arranging flowers on summery days on our parents' farm so many years ago.
Q: How can people purchase The Tarot Flowers?
A: The Tarot of Flowers is available on my website www.nectarandbloomfloral.com in our online shop. The presale is open now for our limited first release, with shipping expected in May 2024. The deck comes with a 200+ page illustrated guide booklet, 78 illustrated cards, and all the guidance you need for understanding Tarot and how to read your cards, and it is all contained within a smooth matte collectable box with slide-off lid that we hand-picked for its durability and beauty. I am so excited to have this beautiful experience in your hands! If you have any questions, you can also reach out to me directly at jen@nectarandbloomfloral.com.
