“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”
My story
Hello! My name is Heather Raposo.
As an Art History major at Arizona State University, I took courses & received certificates in the Science & Art of Botanical (floral) Design, history of photography & digital photography. This introduced me to the industry of floristry, where I fell in love with flowers (even more) & began designing.
At first, I expanded my love of gardening and began to dabble in growing cut-flowers. Between the courses and my personal garden and photographing all things floral; I was able to get to know flowers in a unique way. I learned all of the important things about each plant. Things like common names, scientific names, seasons they grow, ideal atmospheres, varieties, heights, how to care for them, vase longevity, and so much more. All of this made for really good information to allow me to make the best arrangements and bouquets. I also began sending myself flowers on weekly basis and “played” with designs, honing my learnt skills and creating.
In 2020, I took a chance and joined the Poppy Floral Network, where they hire floral designers for weddings & events across USA. This allowed me to really explore my creativity and design art, without worrying about the business side of being a florist as I established myself within the field. As I shared more and more of my arrangements & designs through photos; I began to have many requests for my work, thus flora & foto was born.
Picked with care
Keeping within the ethos of wanting to be sure that flowers are available to all people from all budgets is really important to me. Unfortunately, it’s widely thought within the floral business that budgets have to be over a certain amount. Yes, flowers can be expensive (really expensive)! But if you get to know the growing seasons, work with local farmers and wholesalers, use sustainable methods, and have a designer who is passionate about florals (not just making money) - then anyone can have beautiful flowers as a part of their lasting memories and events. If it’s not cost effective to book with me, I am very happy to help you find a DIY kit or point you in a direction that can help you have the flowers of your dreams. It’s all about researching and resourcing and I have done a lot of that, because I simply love the beauty of flowers!
