Conversations with Brooks Barwell

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooks Barwell.

Hi Brooks, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
After a joint piano lesson in late 2016, I mentioned to my friend, Kappy Kling, former owner of Hearthfire Books & Treats, how fun it might be to have a little pop-up Mother’s Day flower shop, maybe next to her bookstore? She looked at me thoughtfully. “Do it this Christmas inside Hearthfire.” I laughed. Christmas was six weeks away and she’d called me on my musings. I went home, phoned Jennifer McGrath, and much to my surprise, she said “Let’s do it!” Ah, friends like these!

Though piano lessons have fallen by the wayside, (be thankful!), the joy of planning, hosting, and playing with plants in a pop-up format flourished. Pop-ups are like surprises and special treats. That’s the feeling Sedum & Sage aims to spread. Sharing in your celebrations is privilege and delight. I often set up a physical retail location for holidays and special occasions. In addition to the pop-ups, I offer occasional floral arrangement and subscription programs, and am delighted to help with special events and custom orders.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Smooth sailing all the way, of course! Ha! I look at my business as a learning opportunity for my clients and me. Clients, who are mainly my friends, or become friends, have been the source of some of my favorite designs and solved problems.

Early on, one client kept encouraging me to have a website, which I knew I needed, but I couldn’t seem to pick a platform. She actually sat down with me and went through the pros and cons of each and helped me to understand that the website could grow with me and didn’t have to be complete at the start. I wanted to learn how to do it and be able to tweak it myself at 11:00 pm, so one three day weekend, when my family was otherwise occupied, I stayed in my pjs and cranked it out. It’s still far from perfect and doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of a professionally designed website, but it works for my business, and I learned a new skill.

Another friend suggests one new design for me each winter. She pulled a picture of a holiday vine wreath and asked me to make one for her. I did and a few people asked about it while it was under construction. I sold a few that year, and now it is the basis for one of our most popular holiday workshops, coming up on December 2nd.

I aim to be a personal florist for my clients and am happy to do the extra bit to make their gifts and occasions unique. This Homecoming, a mom called and described what her son wanted to incorporate into a corsage for his date. It was an unusual request, but when a 16 year old has a vision of the flowers he’d like to give, you support that!

My main struggle has been to grow my business in a way that fits my life. The environmental cost of standard cut flowers is high, so I believe flowers ought to be a real treat. they need to gorgeous and long-lasting. Many of my designs, like the Succulent Pumpkins and Holiday Vine Wreaths last for months. I’m proud of those designs and of the way we create weddings for minimal waste. I’m also partnering with the Evergreen Sustainability Alliance on a Sustainability Camp this summer, rolling several of my kids’ workshops into a 3 day extravaganza!

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
On my first day as a public art planner in Arlington, Virginia, (which is an administrative job), a wildly creative woman from an adjacent department, greeted me warmly and asked “What’s your art?” I’d never been mistaken for an artist before that day, but since, “playing with plants” is my art! I love its dimensionality, not just 3D but 4D. The temporal aspect is probably my favorite. You know those Northern European Still Lifes, (it is “lifes” in this context) where a few petals have fallen from the tulip? They allude the the transience of life, and that is gorgeous thing to be able to celebrate with flowers.

Gardening and garden design is my first love. I had determined that soil science would be my career until well-meaning high school teachers told me that was too boring for my applications. (This was a good 35 years ago before the currently recognized crisis in agricultural soil health.) The fire still burns. I tend to not let you go if you’ll talk with me about composting.

And then there is the art. I once collected a bunch of natural materials from our yard and pressed them into wet clay, planning to make some organic looking tiles. My dad was in the Navy and we moved a bunch, and I thought it would be a cool way to document the places we lived. However, when I removed the plant material, it looked like outer space. The forms were geometric and regular, nothing like the feel of the landscape. Since then, I’ve learned to look more closely. Next time you need a focal point for your mediation, take a look at the back end of a pinecone. In Colorado, it’s our most readily available demonstration of the Fibonacci Sequence (aka Golden Ratio, where you add the last two numbers in the sequence together).

So the plant material is endlessly fascinating, and on top of that you get to create more with it! Juxtaposition of forms, variety, styles, delight, shock. It’s all part of the fun of playing with plants.

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
I feel like I’m continually just starting out, and have a difficult time believe it’s been ten years! Most importantly, take care of people and they will take care of you. Do what you know is right, not just what you think the client wants, but let them know up front!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sedumandsage.com
• Instagram: @sedumandsageco
• Facebook: @sedumandsageco
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brooks-barwell-5504989/

Image Credits
Brooks portrait by Sharifa Moore
All others by Brooks