Delivering Flower Joy

Master Floral Designer grows flowers, creates business, finds success

Story by Leah Bowers | Photos by Kevin Hudson and Michaela Parker

By day, she’s a registered dietitian who works with dialysis patients, but after her regular workday, Sandra Carr is headed to work at Raymond Blooms, her flower farm in Hinds County.

Carr is growing, arranging, and selling colorful, vibrant flowers, and she’s loving every minute of it.

“I wanted to give joy to people,” she explains. “It was a hard time during the pandemic—people were not doing well mentally or physically. I started growing vegetables; I’m big into education and learning, so I was learning all I could about how to grow things successfully.

“I needed the flowers to help pollinate my vegetables, and I found so much joy in the flowers, that the next year, I focused on flowers.”

Carr dug into learning and community involvement as she began growing more flowers. She joined the Growing Kindness Project, a mission to grow flowers and share them with people.

Then, she started arranging bouquets and soon realized the Mississippi State University Extension Service offers a Master Floral Designer program, and she knew she needed to get involved in that, too.

“I needed to learn more about arranging flowers, and I already knew about Extension—I was familiar with their soil testing services,” Carr reveals. “With Master Floral Design, I dug in and liked what I saw.

“It’s very structured and broken into three phases. It’s self-paced, so I was able to watch the videos on my own time. It’s a very professional course, and Jim, the instructor, makes the videos funny and engaging.”

Dr. Jim DelPrince, associate Extension professor, delivers phase one of the course fully online, and phase two requires participants to go the Coastal Research and Extension Center in Biloxi for a week of hands-on, in-person floral design. Phase three requires 40 hours of volunteer service for Extension; participants can design for community spaces or teach design themselves, among other options.

“Being with people who are passionate and well trained in floral design helped me commit—my finances, my time—to doing different designs,” Carr shares. “I got to know everybody in the class—all different backgrounds and goals, and all making so many beautiful arrangements.

“We were pushed to do different things, and everyone really developed their own style by the end of the week.”

Carr has been dedicated to the service role in phase three. She’s been providing flower arrangement services at weddings and applying what she’s learned in Master Floral Design: from applying color palettes to determining the numbers of flowers needed, she’s helping couples save on buying flowers and providing free arrangement services.

Now, word is spreading, and Carr’s services—and flowers—are growing in demand.

“I’ve gotten to do birthday arrangements, prom, and homecoming arrangements, and my business is growing organically,” she laughs. “I’ve never sold anything, but now I’m selling my flowers, and I’m beginning to see, maybe this is something I can do as a side job.

“I try to apply everything I’ve learned: cost, keeping flowers fresh, applying color palettes. It’s so nice to be able to provide these things locally.”