News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
A Putnam County resident turned a love of flowers from a hobby into a business.
40:8 Flower Company founded during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now it produces flowers across all seasons. Owner and Operator Katie Martin said she started growing flowers as a hobby and did not expect it to be as successful as it is today.
“We kind of took it on as a hobby and passion project,” Martin said. “And our goal is to use our farm that’s been in our family for three generations, to kind of bring beauty to the community, to provide and connect people with locally grown flowers.”
A local flower company started as a hobby, but has grown to provide flowers
Martin said the business is named 40:8 Flower Company in reference to the bible verse Isaiah 40:8 which reads “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our god endures forever.” Martin said the verse spoke to her and encouraged her to make the business something bigger than herself.
“I was getting into the whole flower thing that this is one way that we can kind of bring temporary happiness or temporary joy to people,” Martin said. “But that you know if it was going to be something bigger than that it had to be bigger than us it had to be something that was centered around our faith as well.”
Martin said that the business grows different flowers according to the seasons and weather. Recently, Martin grew some 2,500 Tulips for the spring Martin said. 40:8 Flower Company provides flowers for weddings, funerals, school graduations, farmers markets, and local shops. Martin said surprisingly enough the majority of her customers are buying flowers for themselves or loved ones.
“We got some great customers that are repeat customers I would say a lot of our customers are actually buying flowers for either themselves as a special treat,” Martin said. “Which I always encourage because I don’t think we do enough a little stuff for ourselves anything that kind brightens your day that’s self-care so I love when people buy themselves flowers or of course when people buy flowers to gift them.”
Martin said that when she started the journey, she had little experience but was curious to learn.
“I hadn’t grown a lot of flowers before I hadn’t really grown anything outside of a vegetable garden or what not so it was a little bit random but it was just one of those once you grow one thing you want to try all the varieties so we kind of jumped in with both feet and just started out pretty big,” Martin said.
