When Lauren Uhlig moved from an apartment to a home in northeast Baltimore's Hamilton Hills in 2016, she was excited about the four-by-eight vegetable bed in the backyard. Although she works as an architect, Uhlig was inspired to explore the local cut flower movement, and on a whim, she decided to try her hand at growing some roses. When she told people about her blooming aspirations, they all said the same thing: good luck.
Roses are notoriously difficult to grow in this area due to heat, humidity, and deer. But Uhlig, 31, was undeterred. She bought five rose bushes in 2019 just to see if she could keep them alive, and now she has several hundred—and many more four-by-eight flower beds in the backyard.
"I still remember my first rose," she says. "I was so proud of myself. I had grown a rose, and it had bloomed, and it was magical. And I haven't stopped since.
"I had no background in gardening, no background in roses; it was just something I fell into and seem to have a knack for," she continues. She had such a knack she decided to turn it into a business. In honor of that first garden bed, Uhlig started Florxeight (pronounced floor-by-eight) in 2019 and now sells cut roses directly to local florists.
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