Florist Spotlight: Alexandra Scholtz

Rosaprima’s Florist Spotlights are segments where incredible florists from around the world are recognized for their talents and provided a space where they may share their stories and insights.

This time, we are excited to shine the spotlight on Alexandra Scholtz, extraordinary floral designer and founder of WildFlora, a booming floral shop based in California. Here, Alexandra shares her story, inspirations, and advice to floral professionals.

I’d say the lack of flowers in my life. Here’s a little backstory to understand: I’m a second generation florist, so I grew up in my family’s flower shops. I was a child, surrounded by the floral industry by default. After graduating college with my degree in Hospitality Management, I started working in hotels. My days shifted away from flowers, and something didn’t feel right. Almost immediately after this realization, I quit my job and went right back to a flower shop. It’s been 100% flowers every day ever since.  

It’s easy to lose yourself in a flower. Oftentimes, you will find me at the flower market with my face in a bunch of stock or opening the corner of a Gardenia box so I can smell the intoxicating scent they give off. To send your senses on an instant joyride like that, makes flowers supreme.

On one end of the spectrum, I was seeing a lot of high-end arrangements in formal shapes for events, and at the other end, more accessible flowers designed in looser styles at grocery stores. I was excited to explore that fun, wild, place in the middle – creating free-flowing arrangements with the best quality blooms! I’ve been thrilled that people have loved the blend as much as I have loved creating it.

Where to start? Pros – it’s yours! You can do whatever you want with it. Grow it to whatever size is comfortable, set your own goals, or set your own boundaries. Watching WildFlora grow has been the greatest joy of it all. Cons – it’s challenging to turn it off. WildFlora feels like it’s on my mind 24/7. I’m always working on the right work/life balance. However, I think most entrepreneurs struggle with this dilemma. What feels like a con but is a pro? Letting go of control. It felt strange when my business grew and didn’t need me for every little thing. Something that once was 100% reliant on me could now operate without me. It’s actually a sign of success! I can thank my wonderful team for this.

As cliche as it may be – remember to do you. It’s great to be inspired by others but remember to design from within and work with what speaks to you. If you can afford to, hire your weaknesses! It’s so rare to have a creative mind that can also run the business side of things. You can do it all in the beginning, but you’ll hit a point where trusting someone else with this will grow your business greatly.

It’s the best! I think the whole floral industry got a revamp with social media. Consumers want visuals and what’s a better visual than flowers? Having a good social media presence will only do good things for your business.

 I always turn to nature to recharge which helps to spark creativity. Hikes, walks through botanical gardens, anything that reconnects me to nature works wonders for me. A tip for others would be to work when you feel most creative. Or at least make notes or make a list of your creative thoughts when they’re happening. I spend a lot of time in bed at night working on WildFlora. Whatever time that may be for you, run with it.

Lots of monochromatic arrangements, vibrant color palettes, and arrangements with less greenery. It’s tough for me to run with that last one because WildFlora is very garden-style which highlights the use of greenery, but lately It’s all about the boldness of color, which means less greens.

RP Moab stole my heart. Such a unique color that can inspire so many romantic palettes.