After 5 years of co-owning Winkler’s Bloom Floral Creative, Madison Schiller and her team have received more recognition for the work they do. Just a couple months after being given the 2023 Business Excellence Award at the Winkler Chamber of Commerce 2023 P.W. Enns Business Awards, Bloom has been invited to take part in the world-renowned "Fleurs de Villes" exhibit at Winnipeg’s The Leaf, celebrating the one-year anniversary of the indoor horticultural attraction at Assiniboine Park.
Schiller outlined a bit about the invitation.
“We were invited to come and create a mannequin display at The Leaf with 15 other Manitoba florists. With the theme being Voyage, all the displays are different destinations worldwide. We were assigned to China, which is fun for me ‘cause I have a friend that has Chinese heritage, and so right away, I texted her and I said, ‘Hey, do you have any ideas? What would be something fun and true I could work off of?’”
Her friend was quick to give her some ideas.
“Right away, she sent me this stunning red dress and I just was in love with all the details of it. So, that was our first piece of inspiration. Also, it's New Year's right now, and the Lunar New Year starts shortly, at the end of January, and so, we just wanted to pull inspiration from that and use those celebratory customs that they have. Like dragon dancing and lighting red lanterns and celebrating wealth and prosperity into the New year and kind of leaving the old year behind something, I think, all of us can relate to.”
The Voyage exhibit at The Leaf runs from January 11-21 with displays featuring countries from around the world like Brazil, China, Iceland, India, Mexico, the Philippines, Scotland, Ukraine for example, including a special Indigenous display featuring Manitoba. All the displays are built around a mannequin.
Schiller said her team worked hard bringing all the ideas to life, even when it seemed they may have bit off more than they could chew in the days leading up to the opening night, but it paid off. Bloom’s display was voted the “Florist’s Favourite.”
Schiller was surprised and completely humbled.
“To have all of these other incredibly accomplished designers vote for us to be their favourite was just such an amazing experience and not something that I expected at all. It was actually kind of emotional because I was just excited to be invited there to design with them, never mind for them to love our piece as much as they did. So, we were voted Florist’s Favourite, and the judges they brought in also voted for us as the ‘Most Realistic Installation.’”
The displays will be refreshed every two days until the exhibit ends on the 21st, so guests will see a fresh display right until the last day.
After lifelong experience on the farm and in horticulture and eight years in floral design, Schiller explained her dream for Bloom when she went into business.
“It was really about wanting to bring more elevated flowers to our area and more specialty blooms and not just have, ‘Oh, that's what they can do in the Southern States,’ or ‘That's what you see on Pinterest.’ But we can do that here and we are the stuff on Pinterest. And that's always been my goal, to bring something bigger and better to our area and more elevated.”
The success Bloom has achieved, brings growth and more business, which Schiller said is a priority to learn how to manage.
Looking ahead into 2024, Schiller anticipates participating in the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s “Art in Bloom” exhibit and is looking forward to so many beautiful wedding plans for the summer as well.
She thanked her team for following the dream and for all their hard work and is also grateful to The Leaf and “Fleurs De Villes” for the opportunity to take part in this world-renowned event.
You can buy tickets online for the Fleurs de Ville Voyage exhibit here.
Fri, Jul 26, 6:03 PM
Skilled Trades, Labour, Full-time, Hourly
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